Free Local Pickup appearing in many listings

[shipscript]

elizabeth@ebay 

Free Local Pickup erroneously shows in several of my listings and in some of the listings of a number of other sellers (shown in my spreadsheet) who have reported on the forums. Some of my listings:

225198526220
384951647014
384951646506
225027952991

I attempted to remove the option within the Unified listing form by toggling the setting on and off again, but that did not change the outcome.

I tried to delineate the conditions common to all of those listings, and here is what I have excluded so far:

Browser or cache is not the issue (tried for desktop browsers on Mac and Windows).

Revision history is not solely the issue (appears in both revised and unrevised listings).

Creation date is not the issue (I see it in Jun 2021 and Oct 2022 listings, along with more recent listings).

A combination of creation/revision may be suspect, as most were touched between 10/01 thru 11/11 , but there are outliers whose most recent date is 3/29, so not likely the source.

Most include USPS first class or eBay Standard Envelope or USPS Priority mail as primary or secondary shipping method, but some of those shipping methods did not trigger the local pickup.

The problem arises on both free and calculated shipping.

The Local Pickup carries through to checkout and can be selected, so it is not simply a display issue.  Below is a sampling of 4 different sellers where I selected the used eBay's "newly listed" sort to select a handful of listings. I avoided posting item numbers for privacy reasons but can message those if needed.

Category	Ship1	cost1	Ship2	cost2	Ship3	cost3	LocalPickup	Rev0-creation	Rev1	Rev2	Rev3	Rev4
postcards	eBayStdEnv	free	USPS first class	3.62				2022-11-04	2022-11-04	2022-11-09
test	USPS first class	free					yes	2022-10-09	none
test	eBayStdEnv	free						2022-10-06	not recorded
test	Economy shipping	free						2022-06-30	2022-06-30
coin	eBayStdEnv	free					yes	2022-06-22	2022-10-08	2022-10-09
coin	USPS first class	3.84	USPS ParSelGnd	7.47			yes	2022-06-22	2022-07-06	2022-10-08	2022-10-19
coin	eBayStdEnv	free					yes	2022-06-12	2022-06-26	2022-09-02	2022-09-09	2022-10-08
test	Economy shipping	free						2021-11-17	2022-04-23	2022-05-12	2022-07-08	2022-10-01
test	Economy shipping	free						2021-07-28	2022-04-23	2022-05-12
tripod	USPS ParSelGnd	18.47	USPS Priority	26.6	USPS priorExp	66.5	yes	2021-12-03	2022-03-29	2022-11-03
lamps	USPS ParSelGnd	107.3	USPS Priority	118	USPS priorExp	218	yes	2021-08-03	2021-08-04	…2021-11-11	2021-12-11	2022-03-29
stamps	USPS first class	7.68	USPS Priority	11.5	USPS priorExp	44	yes	2021-07-19	2021-07-23	2021-10-31	2021-12-11	2022-03-29
stamps	USPS first class	5.55	USPS Priority	11.5	USPS priorExp	7.75	yes	2021-06-28	2021-07-13	2021-11-11	2021-12-11	2022-03-29
toys	USPS ParSelGnd	37.77	USPS Priority	64.1	USPS priorExp	155	yes	2021-06-23	2021-12-11	2022-03-29	2022-10-04	2022-10-20
CDs	USPS media mail	4.49	USPS ParSelGnd	10.4	USPS Priority	11.5		2021-05-12	2021-07-12	2021-11-11	2021-12-11	2022-03-29
corks	USPS Priority	9.55	USPS ParSelGnd	7.53			yes	2022-11-11	2022-11-11
cards	eBayStdEnv	free						2022-09-27	none
corks	USPS first class	6.1	USPS priorFRB	17.1			yes	2022-09-27	2022-09-27
charts	USPS first class	5.6					yes	2022-08-16	none
lab	USPS first class	5.6					yes	2022-01-01	none
lab	USPS first class	5.6					yes	2021-12-31	2021-12-31
terminal	USPS Priority	22.2						2022-03-08	none

[kds99]

Very curious! Why is this never happening to me? Is it possible that the affected listings were created by "Sell Similar" and in creating the listing it was not noticed that Local Pickup was already selected on the parent listing? I know that I have not trained myself to visually check each of the blue button sliders on the new listing tool. I know you are seeking a more complex cause, and you may be right. Just offering another possibility. Using Win 10, Firefox always updated. I have a few local pickups but they are intentional (I think).

[elizabeth@ebay]

---

@shipscript wrote:

elizabeth@ebay 

Free Local Pickup erroneously shows in several of my listings and in some of the listings of a number of other sellers (shown in my spreadsheet) who have reported on the forums. Some of my listings:

225198526220
384951647014
384951646506
225027952991

I attempted to remove the option within the Unified listing form by toggling the setting on and off again, but that did not change the outcome.

I tried to delineate the conditions common to all of those listings, and here is what I have excluded so far:

Browser or cache is not the issue (tried for desktop browsers on Mac and Windows).

Revision history is not solely the issue (appears in both revised and unrevised listings).

Creation date is not the issue (I see it in Jun 2021 and Oct 2022 listings, along with more recent listings).

A combination of creation/revision may be suspect, as most were touched between 10/01 thru 11/11 , but there are outliers whose most recent date is 3/29, so not likely the source.

Most include USPS first class or eBay Standard Envelope or USPS Priority mail as primary or secondary shipping method, but some of those shipping methods did not trigger the local pickup.

The problem arises on both free and calculated shipping.

The Local Pickup carries through to checkout and can be selected, so it is not simply a display issue.  Below is a sampling of 4 different sellers where I selected the used eBay's "newly listed" sort to select a handful of listings. I avoided posting item numbers for privacy reasons but can message those if needed.

Category	Ship1	cost1	Ship2	cost2	Ship3	cost3	LocalPickup	Rev0-creation	Rev1	Rev2	Rev3	Rev4
postcards	eBayStdEnv	free	USPS first class	3.62				2022-11-04	2022-11-04	2022-11-09
test	USPS first class	free					yes	2022-10-09	none
test	eBayStdEnv	free						2022-10-06	not recorded
test	Economy shipping	free						2022-06-30	2022-06-30
coin	eBayStdEnv	free					yes	2022-06-22	2022-10-08	2022-10-09
coin	USPS first class	3.84	USPS ParSelGnd	7.47			yes	2022-06-22	2022-07-06	2022-10-08	2022-10-19
coin	eBayStdEnv	free					yes	2022-06-12	2022-06-26	2022-09-02	2022-09-09	2022-10-08
test	Economy shipping	free						2021-11-17	2022-04-23	2022-05-12	2022-07-08	2022-10-01
test	Economy shipping	free						2021-07-28	2022-04-23	2022-05-12
tripod	USPS ParSelGnd	18.47	USPS Priority	26.6	USPS priorExp	66.5	yes	2021-12-03	2022-03-29	2022-11-03
lamps	USPS ParSelGnd	107.3	USPS Priority	118	USPS priorExp	218	yes	2021-08-03	2021-08-04	…2021-11-11	2021-12-11	2022-03-29
stamps	USPS first class	7.68	USPS Priority	11.5	USPS priorExp	44	yes	2021-07-19	2021-07-23	2021-10-31	2021-12-11	2022-03-29
stamps	USPS first class	5.55	USPS Priority	11.5	USPS priorExp	7.75	yes	2021-06-28	2021-07-13	2021-11-11	2021-12-11	2022-03-29
toys	USPS ParSelGnd	37.77	USPS Priority	64.1	USPS priorExp	155	yes	2021-06-23	2021-12-11	2022-03-29	2022-10-04	2022-10-20
CDs	USPS media mail	4.49	USPS ParSelGnd	10.4	USPS Priority	11.5		2021-05-12	2021-07-12	2021-11-11	2021-12-11	2022-03-29
corks	USPS Priority	9.55	USPS ParSelGnd	7.53			yes	2022-11-11	2022-11-11
cards	eBayStdEnv	free						2022-09-27	none
corks	USPS first class	6.1	USPS priorFRB	17.1			yes	2022-09-27	2022-09-27
charts	USPS first class	5.6					yes	2022-08-16	none
lab	USPS first class	5.6					yes	2022-01-01	none
lab	USPS first class	5.6					yes	2021-12-31	2021-12-31
terminal	USPS Priority	22.2						2022-03-08	none

---

Hi @shipscript. Thanks for getting this reported. I'm getting a ticket created and this also sent over to my shipping team. Just to clarify, were you able to create a brand new listing from scratch to see if this was still happening? I'd like to add that info to my ticket as well. 

[shipscript]

elizabeth@ebay 

Sorry this took so long - it required many hours of additional testing.

I created three new scratch listings in the test category, one each with flat shipping and calculated shipping and a free option.  None has the problem.

385240978522

385241004048

385241010825

I created a sell-similar from an affected coin listing 225027952991  and the new free-flat-rate listing displayed the issue: 385241028129

I then revised that new listing, selected local pickup only from the drop list, and then switched back to not-free flat rate.

The revised listing has dropped the local pickup.

This looks like a problem the arose at some point in time and has carried forward with sell-similar. I almost always use drafts and sell-similar for quick testing.

I revised the older listing 225027952991 and found that free pickup, below the rate section, was toggled-on. I toggled that off and local pickup was removed from the revision. This is dissimilar to my prior tests where local pickup displayed even when the toggle was off. And toggling it on and back off again did not remove local pickup from the revision as it did this time.

To muddy the issue, I believe I used the bulk editor on Oct 8 to change shipping parameters many times over (which clears all shipping parameters) on these three coin listings,

225027952991

384951646506

384951647014

---

NEW TEST - different account.

However, I did not use the bulk editor on another affected account. Six weeks ago, I ended all listings that were created on Nov 13, 2021 and Feb 16,2022. I was unaware of the local pickup issue at the time, as local pickup would not have been a selected option on this account.

Two ended listings (1193 & 7223) had 2 "shipping terms" revisions on Apr 30, 2022, perhaps to remove Local Pickup. Three other identical listings, created at the same time (Nov 13, 2021) sold before that Apr date and had no revisions or issues.

Only one of those ended listings (7222) displays Local Pickup. This was a multi-quantity listing, with revisions on

Nov 15, 2021

Nov 18, 2021

Apr 02, 2022

Quantity was revised in the Seller Hub grid.

Shipping was never touched.

I relisted from that ended listing (which I now discover had Local Pickup - so we can age this problem backward from Apr 02, 2022 to Sep 27, 2022).

Last week, I used sell-similar (6566) from that relist (9885), and that is when I first discovered that Local Pickup was a problem, and tried unsuccessfully to eliminate Local Pickup when the listing was created.

Now I am trying again this week.

• Opening the affected calculated-shipping listing (6566) that was created on Nov 11, 2022, from a sell-similar of a relist, the local pickup toggle was off. 
• I turned it on and saved the listing.
• Then I turned it off and saved the listing. Local pickup still displays.
• Next, I selected "Local Pickup Only" from the drop list, which cleared all my shipping parameters.
• Then I re-selected "Standard shipping" from the drop list and had to repopulate all shipping options.
• I verified local pickup was still toggled off and saved.
• The listing still shows free local pickup.
  
  
• Revising and again selecting "local pickup only" from the drop list, I saved the listing, which displays local pickup.
• Revising back to "standard shipping" from the drop list with calculated shipping, I had to re-enter all shipping parameters.
• The Local pickup toggle remains off, and I saved the listing.
• The listing continues to display "Free local pickup".

Because I had so few listings on that account, and so little activity, it is probably the easiest one to examine.

[elizabeth@ebay]

---

@shipscript wrote:

elizabeth@ebay 

Sorry this took so long - it required many hours of additional testing.

I created three new scratch listings in the test category, one each with flat shipping and calculated shipping and a free option.  None has the problem.

385240978522

385241004048

385241010825

I created a sell-similar from an affected coin listing 225027952991  and the new free-flat-rate listing displayed the issue: 385241028129

I then revised that new listing, selected local pickup only from the drop list, and then switched back to not-free flat rate.

The revised listing has dropped the local pickup.

This looks like a problem the arose at some point in time and has carried forward with sell-similar. I almost always use drafts and sell-similar for quick testing.

I revised the older listing 225027952991 and found that free pickup, below the rate section, was toggled-on. I toggled that off and local pickup was removed from the revision. This is dissimilar to my prior tests where local pickup displayed even when the toggle was off. And toggling it on and back off again did not remove local pickup from the revision as it did this time.

To muddy the issue, I believe I used the bulk editor on Oct 8 to change shipping parameters many times over (which clears all shipping parameters) on these three coin listings,

225027952991

384951646506

384951647014

---

NEW TEST - different account.

However, I did not use the bulk editor on another affected account. Six weeks ago, I ended all listings that were created on Nov 13, 2021 and Feb 16,2022. I was unaware of the local pickup issue at the time, as local pickup would not have been a selected option on this account.

Two ended listings (1193 & 7223) had 2 "shipping terms" revisions on Apr 30, 2022, perhaps to remove Local Pickup. Three other identical listings, created at the same time (Nov 13, 2021) sold before that Apr date and had no revisions or issues.

Only one of those ended listings (7222) displays Local Pickup. This was a multi-quantity listing, with revisions on

Nov 15, 2021

Nov 18, 2021

Apr 02, 2022

Quantity was revised in the Seller Hub grid.

Shipping was never touched.

I relisted from that ended listing (which I now discover had Local Pickup - so we can age this problem backward from Apr 02, 2022 to Sep 27, 2022).

Last week, I used sell-similar (6566) from that relist (9885), and that is when I first discovered that Local Pickup was a problem, and tried unsuccessfully to eliminate Local Pickup when the listing was created.

Now I am trying again this week.

• Opening the affected calculated-shipping listing (6566) that was created on Nov 11, 2022, from a sell-similar of a relist, the local pickup toggle was off. 
• I turned it on and saved the listing.
• Then I turned it off and saved the listing. Local pickup still displays.
• Next, I selected "Local Pickup Only" from the drop list, which cleared all my shipping parameters.
• Then I re-selected "Standard shipping" from the drop list and had to repopulate all shipping options.
• I verified local pickup was still toggled off and saved.
• The listing still shows free local pickup.
  
  
• Revising and again selecting "local pickup only" from the drop list, I saved the listing, which displays local pickup.
• Revising back to "standard shipping" from the drop list with calculated shipping, I had to re-enter all shipping parameters.
• The Local pickup toggle remains off, and I saved the listing.
• The listing continues to display "Free local pickup".

Because I had so few listings on that account, and so little activity, it is probably the easiest one to examine.

---

I appreciate you taking so much time to do all this testing, and get this over to me @shipscript. I've gotten this over to the shipping team, and created a ticket. I'll keep you posted when I hear back, but for now, I'd recommend starting fresh with brand new listings. Thanks again!

[volvo351]

I was the one who posted to EKG on the 3rd. The listing that triggered my ire still shows "shipping not specified" to would-be buyers, but on the "revision" page there's calculated shipping.  The thing they screwed up royally was that formerly, the shipping charge was shown to the buyer FIRST; if local pickup had been available, that would show under that which made sense.  feeBay can't leave ANYTHING alone that's working; the Indians need to justify their miserable, incompetent existences.  I told the CnSR [Customer non-Service Rep] that in the Real World of IT, managers have responsibility for their areas, and are FIRED for letting this carp happen.  In San Jose [and some Indian crap hole!] those common sense rules don't apply. It's clear that by now, they're in so far over their heads that they can't admit failure and back out the whole installation that caused this. 

[volvo351]

It doesn't seem to matter whether the seller uses "Sell Similar" OR the "Relist" feature, as I did both and it's still corked up.  I have to conclude that it's a major bug in their re-engineered shipping options script.  Why can't sellers [especially small ones!] specify ALL shipping options at the ITEM level?  Forcing people to pre-define something they call a "Shipping Policy" is just nutzo.  IOW, it's S.O.P. for feeBay.  Had they enabled an Opt Out feature, at least there'd be a work-around until the incompetent Indians fixed what they'd broken. Obviously, they didn't want to do that as it would be an admission that the old way wasn't broken and didn't need to be "fixed" [translation: changed for the sake of change and **bleep**'d in the process]. 

[volvo351]

It's still broken, and it's broken real good!  I tried REMOVING "local pickup" from the so-called "shipping policy" and the item using that revised "policy" STILL shows local pickup, and NO calculated shipping, although that's what's showing when I click on it via the item revision page.  IOW, it's somehow "stuck" on local pickup and won't reset; the revised "policy" isn't being connected to the listing.   Can anyone answer my original Q: why did a drastic change to the listing process have to be done in the first place?  It wasn't "broke" so why did anyone attempt to "fix" it?  And, when they "fixed" it, how 'bout some ... er ... TESTING?  Who's going to be fired over this cork-up?  My guess is:  no one!

[volvo351]

So, as is so often the case, sellers have to suffer, in terms of both lost sales and inconvenience, to work around a problem which the eBay IT staff has created.  And, in truth, it can't actually be the "staff" as all initiatives of this type have to be approved and FUNDED by higher-up's in the organization.  The obvious Q then is: "Where was RISK ASSESSMENT in that whole process?"  It's been known since Dirt was a new thing that in any engineering move, changing something entails risk.  There has to be CONTINGENCY plan and that means backing out the change!  Why isn't IT prepared to do that?  Don't they have a recovery plan? Why not? 

[volvo351]

I infer that all these listings are from sellers known to you and hence you know whether Local Pickup was supposed to be attached to the particular listing or not, and the answer for all items is "not."  On my original listing, I did want to OFFER Local Pickup, but only subordinate to Calculated Shipping.  Disabling Local Pickup hasn't helped; the item is still displayed but with the even more confusing "shipping not specified" label.  I added a disclaimer in the listing details stating that of course I'd ship the item, but that ebay had corked this all up royally.  It would seem that the caption "shipping not specified" is some kind of bogus DEFAULT status, as a lister MUST "specify" some kind of "shipping" or conveyance to the buyer, even if it's "Local Pickup Only."  I must therefore conclude that eBay hasn't a clue what the problem is, how to fix it, or even where to look.  

[volvo351]

You say you "...had to re-enter all shipping parameters...."   OK, where did you do that?  I presume you had to edit the "shipping policy" attached to that listing, right?  I'm betting the whole mess stems from that re-engineering where "shipping parameters" are separate and distinct from the individual ITEM.  eBay's site navigation is faulty and isn't retrieving the correct data.  This is an entirely self-inflicted wound.  They tried to be "elegant" instead of following the tried-and-true "KISS" [Keep It Simple, Stupid!] methodology, and it bit them in the butt.  Expecting them to come clean and admit their failure seems like too much to ask for.

[volvo351]

Take a look at item number 334615688972 which currently displays "Shipping not specified" to viewers, but I can assure you most definitely that I made every attempt to "specify" calculated shipping and that's what it displays to me when I click on shipping via the "revise item" page.  I asked "Elizabeth" about this and it's the item about which I originally called CSR weeks ago.  What is "Shipping not specified" even supposed to mean? To a viewer, it says "ignore this item 'cuz the seller isn't going to ship it, and I can't pick it up, either!" Utter nonsense!

[volvo351]

Bottom line: it shouldn't matter a whit how the listing was originally created.  Ostensibly, each listing is linked to a "shipping policy" and what's specified THERE should be applicable to a transaction that subsequently occurs for that merchandise.  if the "policy" is set up wrong, well, it should be possible for the seller to correct it, and that would be that.  For your sake, I'm glad your listings aren't affected; many others are.  The Indians probably had to write SO much script [computer code] for this that Hari doesn't know how to fix Rami's bugs.  They broke two cardinal rules:  1] If it ain't broke, don't fix it.  2] Keep It Simple, Stupid! [aka the "KISS" method.]  Well, it wasn't broke before, but it sure AF is now. 

[volvo351]

BTW, why isn't this major cork up shown the Technical Issues Board, only this discussion board?  Why is this being hidden? 

[evry1nositswindy]

I have been seeing a lot of shipping not specified on listings.  Also, today as I look at items it is showing me cost to the UK , including my own items!  I am in the US.  What is going on?