eBay acknowledged a glitch that makes it impossible for sellers to select FedEx Ground when printing shipping labels through its seller portal – and sellers say it’s a costly problem.
eBay has not issued an announcement, to our knowledge. Its response to the problem came during a weekly chat in which a seller reported the issue and said, “Every day that this is not corrected it is costing sellers who ship to commercial business addresses more money.”
An eBay moderator responded, “Apologies for the trouble the FedEx Ground issue is for you! It’s a known tech issue and our tech team is working to resolve it. I don’t have an ETA on a fix though.”
The seller, “mvls1,” said the problem surfaced when eBay recently added UPS to the shipping label program and said there were other problems as well.
“First and most important,” mvls1 wrote, “the new version no longer includes the option to send our packages by FedEx Ground which was available on the previous label version. That option is for use with packages being shipped to commercial addresses such as the Global Shipping Center and is $4.00 to $30.00 less expensive than other options depending on the size/weight of the package. This is a HUGE omission that is costing sellers a lot of money and needs to be corrected pronto.”
The seller was referring to eBay’s Global Shipping Program in which sellers send such orders to Kentucky, where eBay’s partner then processes and sends the packages overseas on the sellers’ behalf.
“I have been sending feedback with every label I print every day on all our accounts, but still they have not added FedEx ground back as a shipping option,” mvls1 wrote.
Another seller reported the same issue on Ecommerce EKG.
During the Wednesday eBay chat session, another seller, gwzcomps, reported an issue with FedEx that they said had been a known issue for the past 4 years. “When the system flags a commercial address as residential it has a completely different delivery schedule. FedEx Home (which is the residential ground service) delivers 7 days a week in some areas. I have had commercial buyers risk their items getting stolen because FedEx has left packages on the weekend when they are closed.”
Video: “How To Save Money & Time with eBay Labels” (May 24, 2016):
and the self proclaimed greatest tech company fails again
no surprise
An eBay moderator responded, “Apologies for the trouble the FedEx Ground issue is for you! It’s a known tech issue and our tech team is working to resolve it. I don’t have an ETA on a fix though.”
WOW – who would have thought THAT!
YET ANOTHER GLITCH that takes money out of sellers pockets!
…. here comes the deep introspective answer that will explain the minutia of how eBay is even doing you a favor to include it to begin with………
Not the only glitch, for the last week when I go to print shipping labels, FEDEX 2nd or USPS priority mail is selected for a 1st class USPS package, I’ve never ever used FEDEX, esp. for a 1st class package. Rep said it was new issued and not report, yet checking the boards and was reported over 2 weeks ago
If Fedex deems it residential, such as a school, you pay higher rates too. It is unfortunate that there is often no common sense as carriers will sometimes say undress invalid or not able to deliver when they could make an effort. Also, why leave a package outside a business that you know is not open. Given all the packages that are stolen you would think the carriers would knock loudly or ring a bell more than once. Ebay now has UPS rates for about the same as FedEx so that is worth comparing. Fedex is faster to most places.