The US Postal Service rolled out USPS Ground Advantage today, making a major change during what may be one of the busiest weeks of the summer as Amazon, Walmart, and Target kick off major sales this week.
Third-party sellers who use First Class Package Service (FCPS) or Parcel Select, which got absorbed into Ground Advantage, may have challenges as they adapt to the changes.
On eBay, there was confusion about the company’s initial messaging. eBay is automatically changing Parcel Select to Ground Advantage but sellers have to manually change their listings from First Class Package Service to Ground Advantage.
On Sunday, a seller said some eBay customer service reps appeared to be unprepared for seller questions, according to their post on the eBay discussion boards.
One glitch that surfaced for eBay sellers today was described in the same thread: “I am able to change First Class Shipping to Ground Advantage on my listings, but in doing so, the price to ship at the same weight is HIGHER on Ground Advantage! What??? I thought that changing from First Class to Ground Advantage was not going to effect the shipping cost, that it was to stay the same. I am furious!”
But other sellers said the incorrect rates only displayed to sellers. “When making a listing or editing a listing the estimated prices it shows you are incorrect for under 1 pound, but on the actual live listings its correct and when you buy a label its correct,” one seller replied.
Another seller agreed: “eBay is still showing the old rates for Parcel Select Ground, not the rates that went into effect today, on the listing form so if you change from FC to PS/GA now, the listing form will show prices that are the old Parcel Select rates for 1 pound. Good news: Listings themselves seem to have the updated rates.”
However, they said “USPS Click N Ship is a mess, too” (unconfirmed).
While eBay sellers must change their business policies (which help automate which shipping service to use for which listings), Etsy told sellers it would continue to display First Class Package Service and Parcel Select Ground in shipping profiles but would show the updated Ground Advantage rates and estimated delivery dates to buyers in listings and at checkout.
However, some Etsy sellers reported problems printing shipping labels on Saturday and Sunday due to a problem with their shipping presets – it’s unclear if it’s related to the USPS changes since sellers in the UK also reported experiencing the problem.
While Amazon Prime Day and Walmart+ Week make this a busy shipping week for all carriers, the USPS could see another bump in demand next month if UPS workers go on strike when their contract expires at the end of July.
Update 7/10/2023: Etsy acknowledged the shipping-label preset glitch on Monday morning.
People like to complain. Went into Business policies on Ebay and updated each shipping policy to Parcel Select/Ground Advantage. Went to print a label for a sale and Parcel Select/USPS Ground Advantage came up and printed a label with had the big new “G” for Ground on it etc. Ebay still had 1st class package as option as well which will print up as Ground it said. Price appeared to be same to me for my 8 ounce package. No big deal here.
All labels for Ground Advantage printed on Ebay are $2:00+ higher than Pirate Ship. Also, you cannot enter tracking numbers on your Ebay “Awaiting Shipping” page as all you get is the broken wheel rotating and it never stops. In order to enter the tracking numbers for labels purchased off Ebay, you have to go to the Item Order Page and then enter the number(s) there. This started as of today, Monday. Ebay has had more than enough time to get this straight and still they don’t know what they’re doing. A lot of Sellers are going to be dinged when they can’t enter Tracking Numbers because of Ebays lousy programming.
Also, why is it an option to still pick First Class Package anywhere on Ebay because it’s gone now effective Sunday the 9th.?
Correction to part of my last Post. Apparently Ebay caught the problem and has now fixed the price in the labels. It only took them until almost midnight Monday. I’ll stick with the lousy programming & Tracking Number snafu comments though.