When buying shipping labels the page is defaulting to Priority Mail

[fishzlot]

When I go to buy a shipping label Priority is always pre-selected no matter what postage I specified in the listing.  Meaning that myself and others will inevitably make the mistake of selecting the wrong shipping method when just about everything I ship is Media Mail.  This is bogus and needs to go away.   Many have been complaining about it and Ebay has not responded to this sudden problem.

[disneyshopper]

I use ebay's bulk shipping, and I specify the shipping method, so the buyer cannot select any other method, so I don't see this problem.  Perhaps that is why this problem is not affecting my label printing at all.

[electrola_man]

Up until very recently, mine always defaulted to the "buyer selected" shipping method, but in the last couple of weeks it has started coming up with Priority Mail, or in one case, FedEx, as the checked choice.  This is extremely irritating.  I have learned to be very careful before accepting the choice.  I don't know what Ebay did, but I hope they reverse it soon.  If this was a conscious decision to do this, I don't understand the reasoning behind it.

[vintage-car-magazines]

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@disneyshopper wrote:

I use ebay's bulk shipping, and I specify the shipping method, so the buyer cannot select any other method, so I don't see this problem.  Perhaps that is why this problem is not affecting my label printing at all.

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From reading other comments, it sounds like it's not happening when using bulk shipping but will for an individual label.

[janet9988]

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@corvettestainless wrote:

Fees are charged on the amount of shipping $ shown (and paid for by the buyer)  on the listing, not what you pay for the shipping, so that is not the reason. 

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I would not put it past ebay to charge more.

[jayjaspersgarage]

Yep, I have seen this recently but it is a shock to see postage of $8.40 show up when I usually pay under  $3 for under five ounces.  I just select what I want and move on.  Currently I am busy adjusting thousands of auctions and items in the unsold bin to account for the increased holiday rates and figured I might as well set up new rates for January.

[jayjaspersgarage]

I agree that the default should be what the buyer selects.  The you can change it to something else if you need to.  Years ago when I was listing items the software had several glitches that would cost me money if I didn't watch very closely.  I sent one long letter after several months of the glitches because I would put in 12 to 14 hours a day and could miss some of the auto changes ebay was making.  The letter included my lawyers contact information and the problems stopped almost immediately.  This was maybe seven years ago so the specifics have slipped my mind. One issue was the auction length.  I was deep into having my auctions close on certain days and times but the software would change the length of the auction from say 7 to 5 days.  If I didn't see that I couldn't lengthen the auction.  Oh well, maybe someone else here had similar troubles while listing about 7 years ago?

[oaklandmaryland]

sure so Ebay can get higher shipping fees

[quicksilverdiecast]

I to have run into this and it changed about a week ago for me, until them it was Normal ( if there is such a thing on ebay) and once you get into a system you (the seller) have the processes down pretty pat if you sell many items, well when they changed the default I got caught a couple times and had to void the shipping label and go back and do it over correctly, there is a considerable difference in the costs between 1st class and Prio, not to mention that USPS quietly raised shipping costs last week. Ebay needs to learn to leave things alone and NOT fix what is NOT broken, there are many other areas where they need to fix things, rather than simply finding something for someone to do other than just standing around....I think many times the ivory tower comes up with an idea and they throw it up against the wall and sees if it sticks and does not have any consideration for the buyers and sellers it disrupts along the way.

[threshold.sales.group]

Given that we've seen no fix my guess is that this isn't a bug at all, but rather a new "feature" designed to nudge sellers to upgrade shipping services after the sale.  Of course the new "feature" wastes sellers time and makes what was once a seamless process a pain. 

[emerald_door]

I noticed it, too, and it's just wrong.  Shipping methods that I did not include in my listing should not be prioritized above the one method that I'm offering. I'm sure that many sellers are now accidentally shipping by a more expensive method, and losing money, because of eBay's manipulation.

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@corvettestainless wrote:

Fees are charged on the amount of shipping $ shown (and paid for by the buyer)  on the listing, not what you pay for the shipping, so that is not the reason. 

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Naturally the total cost is what FVF is assessed on, so no increase there...BUT you can bet your bottom dollar that all of these places that provide postage get a small percentage of the label cost as a "finders fee" so to speak.  They certainly don't do it for free out of the goodness of their hearts.

The higher the postage, the higher the fee. Think about it.

Ebay doesn't care if an individual seller loses money so long as THEY make money.

[buyselljack2016]

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@corvettestainless wrote:

Fees are charged on the amount of shipping $ shown (and paid for by the buyer)  on the listing, not what you pay for the shipping, so that is not the reason. 

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Not the reason, but as a side "perk" I think that if we were privy to the facts we would see that eBay gets a "cut" on the "discounted" cost of the labels above 1st Class.

@vintage-car-magazines

[buyselljack2016]

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@monster-deals wrote:

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Agreed, but Ebay wants the buyers to get their widgets in the fastest possible manner, so by defaulting to the more expensive, faster method Ebay hopes this will happen.

It's also no coincidence that the more expensive shipping method means more fees to Ebay.

I'm sure things are working out as planned...for Ebay, which is why I said sellers need to pay attention. Around here, if you snooze, you lose.

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I bet the most we will get out of anyone at ebay is: "This feature is working as intended"

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Unless the poster on that thread took the eBay response out of context, another thread that I was reading stated exactly that.

They had a reply from  "Ebay for Business" stating:

Given the shipping delays being experienced through the pandemic, we ran a test that prioritized the service that optimized both cost and delivery speed. This was a small test and we are now rolling it back thanks to seller feedback. Moving forward, the eBay team will make the messaging more prominent in the selling flow and give you the choice to select the buyer choice or the most optimized equivalent. ~Lori

SMALL test?  Apparently small as it may not have included the "off shore mega sellers".

[jammin_recordings_usa]

Agree.   Mine just started doing that a couple weeks ago.   Always would go to with the buyer selected.   I continue to give them a 1 star rating with every label I print.

[jammin_recordings_usa]

Wrong.   Ebay also gets discounts.  You don't think all savings are given to the seller do you?