Pausing Sales for December due to Shipping Delays

[destrucity_shop]

I decided to put my store on vacation mode for the month of December due to shipping delays. This morning a customer contacted me about an item past due delivery, was shipped First Class a seven days ago-- tracking shows no activity. I don't ship a whole lot, about one package a day, but some of the more higher volume sellers are probably in deep trouble now. A forum search of recent discussions revealed many sellers citing severe delays in shipping. This makes sense with new disruptive Post Master rules, more people shopping online from pandemic lockdowns, postal workers calling in sick with covid, and the surge of holiday orders, the postal system is now OVERWHELMED. Imagine what rest of the month will be like!!!--will only get worse as December progresses. I've refunded the buyer (item not expensive), and will be doing local sales until this clears up and resume selling in January.

Happy Holidays!

[grannys_cache]

Yep.  I shut down my stores about an hour ago.  Until eBay does something to protect the sellers, I am not going to sell anything until after the holidays.  I can't afford to give away my products and get negative feedback for something that's out of my control.

[derbycitydelights]

Here is a photo of the Main Louisville, Ky post office and why nothing is moving and I’m sure other states look the same! EBAY NEEDS TO STEP IN AND HELP US SELLERS WITH REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS!!!! we should not have to refund the buyer if this is the mess we’re dealing with out of our control! 

[airsheep]

Wow.  I drove by my local post office yesterday, and the line was out the door and down the block!  I am so glad I got my packages for Xmas in the mail before Thanksgiving.  I did not trust the chances for USPS delivery much later.

[mxkid23]

and i wonder why my items arent making their way to the buyers.. what a mess

even worse, most of my items dont ship with tracking as they are very inexpensive items, its rarley an issue, but right now I have a feeling its going to bite me in the ass pretty bad!!!! 

[busybeavertoys]

Yes that is true.  I sell small items without tracking.  My service matrices is out of sight, and there is nothing I can do.  tracking would stop me from being competitive with other sellers.  Any ideas on how to ship with tracking, without paying 3.50 per package for a 2.75 item.  eBay needs to give us a brake on are service matrices for a while and stop penalizing us for not having tracking.  I would love to have tracking but cant sell things because no one wants to pay for added shipping for a 2.75 item, when other sell it with shipping included and put it in an envelope for a dollar

[mobley120]

"EBAY NEEDS TO STEP IN AND HELP US SELLERS WITH REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS!!!!"

Yeah that's probably a good recommendation.

There are many companies being effected by the delays with USPS...

I read the below article and USPS is recommending ship your packages early to avoid problems, so, I guess if one wants to continue to sell their items without problems and not be punished by eBay, well, I guess one needs to ship 'em before they're purchased, so just pull-out the whitepages and pick-out a perspective buyer, and if you see my name, my wish list is a Rolex, thanks in advance : 0 sarcasm.

https://www.whas11.com/mobile/article/news/kentucky/delayed-mail-costing-bardstown-jewelry-store-tho...

[beautifulbeauty2012]

Packages going via or to states with lockdown orders are in a disaster now, they stuck in MI (especially!!) etc while fast, normal or slightly slower movements in states where no such things. 

[crystalconsultandsales]

Almost all of our packages are severely delayed, with most being "picked up" a week late. Buyers are angry because they thought we are that slow to ship the items. Even though we ship our items the same or next business day. 

There are so many discussions about this on ebay forum, reddit, and pretty much everywhere complaining about the same thing.

eBay's silence and ignoring the issues is ruining buyers experience and sellers businesses. This can't be good for ebay. 

[bughaus]

It needs to also be noted that Ebay is showing incorrect tracking results. Whenever the post office says something is "in transit - arriving late" - ebay is showing this as "USPS is waiting for the item" or similar so now we're getting customers demanding their money back as ebay is making it look like we haven't gave the packages to the post office after a week when they are in fact in transit. Due to the delays we were shipping customers new orders and telling them to send back whichever package arrives last but now our re-shipments are getting stuck in the same limbo so that's not helping anything. At this point we're just telling people the obvious - USPS is massively slowed down due to the pandemic, the holiday season, and ineffective leadership and there is nothing we can do about it. Ebay is really dropping the ball on this for both sellers and buyers.

[1stclass_2ndhand]

I have a $70 item that was shipped priority that was never even scanned that was shipped 8 days ago.  I cannot prove I sent it.  I am disgusted.  Maybe there is a silver lining to my sales being in the crapper this week.  Putting the store on vacation mode until after the holidays is a good idea.  

[grannys_cache]

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/Helping-buyers-understand-shipping-delays-and-what-you-n...