eBay is changing shipping costs without seller permission

[therapy_dragon]

For items 154712390633 and 155115651482, my shipping costs were LOWERED by eBay without my permission. For 154712390633, the shipping cost was lowered from $10.99 to $4.95, and for 155115651482, the shipping cost was lowered from $27.99 to $14.99. 

The listing revisions occurred on February 25. This can be seen in the revision summaries of the two listings. I don't know how many other listings were affected as I'd have to manually go look through all 3900 of my listings. 

The revisions show that the following were changed:

Shipping Terms
Quantity
Details
Changed Restocking Fee from No to --
Changed Restocking Fee from No to --

Obviously, I couldn't have made these changes myself since Restocking Fee is not something that ANY seller can edit. Restocking Fee hasn't been a thing for years. 

I strongly recommend everyone check their own listings, because eBay may be lowering your prices without your permission. They have the incentive and motive to generate more sales at the detriment of sellers. 

[wastingtime101]

Restocking fee is negligible because it doesn't exist anymore. It's old data carried over from old listings. Was just helping another seller on a shipping issue and they made several manual edits which showed the same restocking fee change even though they didn't touch restocking fee because it no longer exists. Just old hidden data. The restocking fee part of it is not related to your shipping price discrepancy.

[stainlessenginecovers]

If I look at your first item, it shows $4.95 shipping;

until I actually Click on the item; then it says $10.95 shipping

devon@ebay 

Hi Devon- can you look into this one as well? 

[nuclearomen]

idk i have free shipping...but if they start changing "free shipping" to free shipping let me know 😆

[a_c_green]

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@therapy_dragon wrote:

For items 154712390633 and 155115651482, my shipping costs were LOWERED by eBay without my permission. For 154712390633, the shipping cost was lowered from $10.99 to $4.95, and for 155115651482, the shipping cost was lowered from $27.99 to $14.99. 

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Just a data point from here in Chicago: I'm seeing $10.99 as intended for 154712390633, but I am seeing $14.99 for 155115651482, which I understand is not what you expected.

I have no explanation for why I'm currently seeing one correct and one wrong, but I'm also seeing a bazillion revisions in the history for each, multiple times a day, and I'm wondering whether something internal got accidentally maxed-out somehow. Maybe the best strategy might be to end the current revised-beyond-belief listing(s), and use each as a Sell Similar to launch a fresh listing instead.

[therapy_dragon]

That's because I changed it back. 

On Feb 25, 2023 at 1:17pm PST, I sold one. The order detail shows it sold with $10.99 shipping. 

On Feb 27, 2023 at 3:35pm PST, I sold another one. The order detail shows it sold with $4.95 shipping. 

I never changed the shipping cost. eBay changed it without my permission. 

[therapy_dragon]

I changed it back for 154712390633 (100% manually adjusted by me) but kept it for 155115651482 (being managed by a third party application). 

[therapy_dragon]

I know it doesn't exist anymore. But eBay's systems are an antiquated patchwork with lots of leftover bloat built atop one another. 

I think something or someone on eBay's system changed a variable involving Restocking Fee, which had the unintended (or intended) consequence of changing other variables. In my case, those other variables including Shipping Terms (read: shipping cost). 

[devon@ebay]

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@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

If I look at your first item, it shows $4.95 shipping;

until I actually Click on the item; then it says $10.95 shipping

devon@ebay 

Hi Devon- can you look into this one as well? 

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Hey @stainlessenginecovers! I can have this sent over to our Shipping Team and if there are any updates I will be sure to come back and share.  

[ckimodog]

@therapy_dragon 

Make sure where you post your shipping costs that those toggles are not enabled. Ebay does that automatically.  I'll give you an example:

When you put your shipping cost in, you'll see to the right, "see all options", click on that and you'll see that more than likely ebay has your shipping costs to automatically decrease along with other things you may have not selected in the past.  All my toggles were enabled on this feature as well.  I don't ship internationally nor do I need Ebay to add their sneaky features in to my listing that I did not choose to offer.  Also look at your return policy and make sure that Ebay has not enabled you to automatically refund returns without getting the item back in your possession.  This is underhanded and sneaky in my opinion, not to mention unacceptable.  If you give a seller options, don't over ride them with what Ebay thinks is best, because in most cases, it's not. 

[asset_liquidators]

Free shipping? Then ebay will just give the buyer an "instant rebate" 😂😂😂

[a_c_green]

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@therapy_dragon wrote:

I changed it back for 154712390633 (100% manually adjusted by me) but kept it for 155115651482 (being managed by a third party application). 

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What is that "third party application" doing for you? I'm looking at the Revision History for 155115651482 and it's just insane: multiple revisions in a single day, and not just what appear to be attempts at price matching (e.g. the BuyItNow price was revised no fewer than seventeen times on January 24th) but also inexplicable alterations to Shipping Terms, which should remain static if the item or its packaging have not changed.

Instead, Shipping Terms were revised... let's see, one, two, three... okay: fifteen times, including twice on February 3rd. Why is that? 

The quality of eBay's software coding has always been sloppy, held together with spit and baling wire, and I'm thinking that in all that churn, something broke. Rather than try to salvage the listing, I would recommend ending it, doing a Sell Similar to put up a fresh revision, and maybe keep an eye on that third-party software package to be sure that it's doing only what you want it to do, and nothing more. Good luck.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@therapy_dragon wrote:

I changed it back for 154712390633 (100% manually adjusted by me) but kept it for 155115651482 (being managed by a third party application). 

---

What is that "third party application" doing for you? I'm looking at the Revision History for 155115651482 and it's just insane: multiple revisions in a single day, and not just what appear to be attempts at price matching (e.g. the BuyItNow price was revised no fewer than seventeen times on January 24th) but also inexplicable alterations to Shipping Terms, which should remain static if the item or its packaging have not changed.

Instead, Shipping Terms were revised... let's see, one, two, three... okay: fifteen times, including twice on February 3rd. Why is that? 

The quality of eBay's software coding has always been sloppy, held together with spit and baling wire, and I'm thinking that in all that churn, something broke. Rather than try to salvage the listing, I would recommend ending it, doing a Sell Similar to put up a fresh revision, and maybe keep an eye on that third-party software package to be sure that it's doing only what you want it to do, and nothing more. Good luck.

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@a_c_green 

Revisions and how they process are something I have been questioning for years. Not sure if it works differently on dot com vs ca but NOW when I review any revisions all it says is that a revision was made. Not what the revision was. Totally required for tracking a history. From a ca perspective the field has become basically useless without data to back anything up.

-Lotz

[kalyoth]

Just curious - what are the weights/dimensions for those items? Because the service of media mail is fairly inexpensive until it gets heavier & exceeds certain dimensions. Takes about 10lbs. to hit the first 10 dollar mark & about 20lbs. for that 15 dollar mark. That's pretty hearty shipping ^^

[baantiques]

Ebay has been adding free shipping to my listings.  I've even gone back and changed it and the next day free shipping is back.  I've been surprised and very **bleep** off after the fact on several auctions where I lost money because of that.