E-retail conglomerate eBay was plagued by a glitch in the company’s shipping label function, an issue that caused significant shipping delays and widespread anxiety among sellers.
EBay customers and retailers flooded message boards Monday (Jan. 12) to report the problem, several of whom were clearly angry and frustrated at the technical malfunction. One eBay commenter posted Monday, “Shipping has not worked for hours, PLEASE PUT UP AN ANNOUNCEMENT AND THEN TELL US WHEN IT’S FIXED.”
The e-commerce site eventually apologized for the inconvenience to consumers in a post, later urging sellers to try printing their shipping labels at 5:30 PM EST. By 5:30, however, eBay said it was still working to resolve the issue.
The company posted at 8:30 PM EST that the matter had been resolved. “Any transaction defects or delays in uploading tracking that we can identify as resulting from this issue will not impact seller performance records,” the company vowed.
While the debacle seems to be put behind eBay, reports say merchants are still scrambling to catch up, worried that customers will blame eBay’s mistakes on the sellers. One seller, who told reporters that it took him 20 minutes to print a single shipping label on Monday, said “there has been no indication eBay will send messages to clients apologizing for late shipments.” EBay spokesperson Ryan Moore has not responded to reporters’ requests for details on the company’s next move in the conflict.
A shipping label blackout is only the latest issue likely to disgruntle eBay sellers. Last month, one eBay executive confirmed seemingly hidden restrictions on seller accounts, including monthly sales listing limits.
EBay announced earlier this week that it has reached a new milestone in merchant sales, with clients achieving more than $1 billion in sales using ship-from-store and in-store pickup services.
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