eBay

zamo-zuan · ‎12-15-2021

So we were just unsure of how to handle Christmas Eve this year, since in most cases if the holiday falls on a Saturday it's observed on Friday, or if it falls on Sunday it's observed on Monday.

We decided to call USPS and check in with eBay, and it seems like we're getting some conflicting information so I'm not sure if this is going to be a problem.

USPS had said to us that on Friday, most locations will be offering delivery, but not pick up and most post offices will be closed for drop off, although it's up to the local Postmaster for a final decision if they would like to stay open.

Then when I called eBay, the rep didn't seem sure, but checked the knowledge base and didn't see anything that says Christmas Eve is not a normal shipping day.

I asked what could be done to help if the local post office is not open and he didn't seem too committal with a resolution, and basically said just print the labels on Friday and ship when possible.

We're not sure how to proceed in this case. If they are not open, what actions could we possibly take?

The next step is we will try to get a hold of the local postmaster to find out exactly what the plan of our local PO is. But this situation is very confusing.

Reference: https://www.usps.com/holiday/holiday-schedule.htm

zamo-zuan · ‎12-30-2021

@simply-the-best-for-you wrote:
@zamo-zuan

I don't disagree with anything you wrote. Ebay frequently doesn't think through (or adequately test) the impacts of their changes, as far as IT goes, so not really a surprise. ITA that the idea behind it was thoughtful, but the implementation sucks. Just arbitrarily deciding that a USPS business day, is not, is a weird way to implement the desired outcome. And then repeating it a week later for New Years, is inexcusable.

Despite the issues, looks like they also did NOT fix it in time for 12/31. I just printed a label that I planned to ship on 12/31 (again, a USPS business day) & once again, I can't print a label for that business day. The only part I disagree with you on is the "short time frame" they did it in. Unless you know something I don't, they had all year to plan for this!

That is interesting that you didn't have pickup avl all week. I would have thought the pickup calendar is the same for everyone in the US who has the service avl. Now whether or not they get carried out, is a completely different story 😉

Either way, everyone will have to deal with this weirdness again on the non-Holiday 12/31, since you can't print a label.

It's actually sad because eBay has a "sandbox" testing site, but they don't seem to actually use it to test things first, lol.

Did they actually do the same thing for new years? I hadn't noticed since we don't use eBay labels. Also, I'm not aware of them announcing any protections for New Years either.

Oh! I gotcha. So regarding the short time frame, what I meant by that is, it doesn't seem like they actually made the decision to protect sellers for those dates until just over a week before Christmas (the chat on the 15th). I had called in to find out and CS said there was no announcements for protections and nothing they could find. So I asked in the chat, and it seemed like the answer was at no at first, but after that they updated and said something along the lines of checking with the shipping team and they suddenly decided to. Considering that, it seemed like a spur of the moment decision.

Yeah, USPS here is honestly unreliable for pickups. We usually have our van available for that reason, often times at least once a week they aren't able to pick up, but with unfortunate timing it was out of service.

I'm a bit puzzled as to why 12/31 is not showing up as a ship date. It IS showing up as a "Ship by" date on our orders. This seems to indicate that the Holiday shipping issue might actually be a separate issue from the Holiday protections, since eBay's system is still recognizing it as a ship date on new orders, and I don't believe any protections are offered.

replacementradios · ‎12-30-2021

eBay could solve ALL of this if they just acknowledged a huge portion of the country considers December 24th and 31st holidays and there should NOT be an expectation sellers must ship on those days. Just make them non-mandatory shipping days eBay! IF a seller is working and IF their post office is open, the seller can choose to ship. Much better to handle it that way than to make everyone think they must ship in a situation where they might not be able to or they had planned not to work, like so many other people. What kind of message does the attitude "I don't have to work but you should" send? (Do as I say, not as I do. That's what...)

This is the culmination of the holiday season. Most sellers are looking for a little relief after putting in more hours per week than any other time of the year. And let's face it. Very little shipped on the 24th is going to make it by the 25th anyway. (Likewise with the 31st/1st.) You're not a bad seller because you want to take a day off when so many others are. Especially if you have limited (or no reasonable) access to shipping that day.

eBay. Help your sellers out here. Permanently. We shouldn't have to keep going through this every year. Put December 24th and 31st in the seller's hands...