Comics-scifi_collectibles Is a Volunteer Community Mentor.
One of my new test accounts appears to have been converted to the new label system.
Within a few seconds the problems were obvious.
Having sold on eBay for 19 years, and working for a large wholesaler before eBay existed, Its obvious that the pencil-pushers sitting behind the desks at eBay don't eat their own dog food and nor do they care. Was this programmed by people living outside the U.S. that have no concept of how U.S. sellers work on eBay or is eBay management just this incompetent? Probably both.
It requires you to enter dimensions under the custom tab yet it shows carrier boxes under than tab and lets you select them. I don't need to be treated like a new seller who is shipping their first package. I know the shipping situations that require dimensions and none of them apply here. Its not going Parcel Select as the buyer selected as some form of Priority Mail is going to be cheaper and faster - either a flat rate box or a regular priority box in which case I should be presented with easy to read choices for those two different groups of boxes. If its in a custom box its less than a cubic foot but there is no reason to enter the dimensions for that as eBay does not offer cubic pricing.
if I change the shipping method to Priority Mail Regional Box A and then change the date eBay reverts the the shipping choice back to the buyer's choice. Having some experience in programing applications, this violates basic GUI rules! You are not suppose to make changes in the user settings unless you ask or the user makes them!
The Media Mail is disabled with the message "Items in this category are not eligible for Media Mail. Find out more"
eBay provides a link how they can tell you how much eBay is "in the know" and how they have exclusive information to tell you just how uninformed you are. eBay is how many years old now and eBay management does not know that its often beneficial to list books and other media NOT in books but in categories pertaining to a particular type of collectible or antique.
The first time I changed the weight from 7 to 6 pounds it reverted the package choice from Regional A to the buyer's choice of Parcel Select. I then changed it back to 7 pounds just to see what would happen. All the shipping rates disappeared and instead this message is displayed "Update package weight and dimensions to view the available services". In order to get the services back I needed to refresh the label page in the browser. Changed the weight for a third time - all the rates are erased again - back to refreshing the page in the browser.
Changed to the Carrier Packaging tab and selected Regional Box A but the rates are zero and the service displays the message "Please select one of the USPS packaging above to see the list of the available services". Refreshed the screen to get back the rates for the Custom Size tab and then changed to the Carrier Packaging tab again, where the rates were now displayed. I needed to select a link to display all the services to see a Regional A box. The weight I entered for the box is no longer displayed in this tab.
If I never use some services I should be able to disable those services in my eBay settings so I never have to see them when creating a shipping label. Visually scanning through more unwanted choices takes more time!
The interface is way too large! I work on dual 24" NEC screens and its way too large compared to the old system. I don't want to see a user interface with bloated buttons and other design elements that are intended for the touch screen of a mobile device on my desktop or laptop!
Back in the day I created a shipping calculator for shipping for Mac Classic, X and Windows XP. It incorporated the entire zip code matrix of USPS as well as all the shipping rules, thus results didn't depend on a internet connection but were instant. I created this app to learn programming and for internal use. Why can't eBay, armed with billions and thousands of employees create a usable tool for creating labels? Instead they release horrible products with the idea of using their sellers as guinea pigs so save development costs.
As this is a newer eBay account I am only getting $50 insurance and only commercial pricing. So lets look at pirateship where I also get commercial pricing with $100 insurance and cubic pricing.
1. Click a bookmark in my browser's toolbar for pirateship.
2. Click the login button. The browser enters the username and password automatically thus I just click the confirm button. Or I could choose to remain logged in to skip this step.
3. Click import eBay orders button.
4. Click Get Rates button by order.
5. Select Regional Box A from a top menu (I've added regular priority boxes to a custom second menu).
6. Enter weight.
7. Get Rates button.
8. Buy Label button.
9. Download and print.
That took way longer to type than the actual few seconds it takes to create a label at a service which much few employees and far less cash. The difference is that pirateship eats its own dog food and eBay does not!
eBay's CEO current salary needs to be quadrupled as this label system takes incompetence to a new level.
I forgot to add image of the old system from a older eBay account so the new users have something to compare the new system to.
You can edit a package in a popup window that is roughly 822 x 485 pixels on one of my 24" screen at its current resolution. You can then dismiss the popup window.
The new system has multiple tabs, requires vertical scrolling, erases user settings contrary to industry GUI standards and has a host of other problems. How could anyone at eBay's managment think this new label system was better? The only thing better was that one of the options to save labels gets rid of the unneccesary graphics on the label so that they need not be cropped out manually. That is not much of an improvement as I've been using a application to bulk crop the downloaded labels for over a decade and pirateship already does this.
@Anonymous I have two major issues. The first is the flow will sometimes offer media mail as option that the buyer selected when it's not even an option on the listing. The buyer selected priority.
The other problem that is everyttime I try to print a label for a listing that I need to use regional A for its not in the compare all list. I use the exact box size on the listings with a 2 lb weight. I figured out a work around to make regional A show on the compare all list by changing the first dimension field size to zero
They really need to fix the compare all list and let us choose like we could before. Or add regional rate boxes as shipping option in the listing flow.
@snapcrackler If your flat rate box is not showing on compare all services then change the first dimension to zero. I have found that this brings up the other options such as regional rate.
@comics-scifi-collectibles wrote:
@Anonymous I have two major issues. The first is the flow will sometimes offer media mail as option that the buyer selected when it's not even an option on the listing. The buyer selected priority.
The other problem that is everyttime I try to print a label for a listing that I need to use regional A for its not in the compare all list. I use the exact box size on the listings with a 2 lb weight. I figured out a work around to make regional A show on the compare all list by changing the first dimension field size to zero
They really need to fix the compare all list and let us choose like we could before. Or add regional rate boxes as shipping option in the listing flow.
Thanks, @comics-scifi-collectibles! I'll send this feedback to the shipping team!
