Atlanta-Area USPS Delays Worry Online Sellers - Will Marketplaces Step Up With Protections?

Liz Morton
Liz Morton


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USPS delays in and around the Atlanta area have caught congressional attention and online sellers are worried about impacts to their businesses.

United States Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) has launched an inquiry into what's going on at the postal facility in Palmetto, GA demanding answers as to what's causing delays and what actions are being taken to resolve the issues.

Mitchell Taylor, the president of the American Postal Workers Union, told local Atlanta news outlet 11Alive he believes the delays are due to the facility not being properly planning before opening.

The regional facility opened on Feb. 24 and Taylor says that poor planning has led to trucks loaded with mail sitting at the facility for hours – logjamming the entire process.

"This level of impact and movements and disruption. I've been doing this for 20 years, 20 years plus at union and I haven't seen it like this. They're supposed to go in and out of that facility in like 30 minutes – drop off, pick up and be out. Ideally, that's the way you want it to be. But, that's not happening. I don't think it was designed to handle what they're trying to do with it," Taylor said.

Meanwhile, sellers in the eBay community are expressing concerns that these delays are causing an increase in Item Not Received cases and eBay has not yet acknowledged the problem or promised to provide protection due to the issue being outside of sellers' control.

USPS problems in Georgia
Yes, it’s a nightmare scenario right now. Google USPS GA problems and you will see plenty of info including our senators asking the Postmaster General for explanations. I have tons of eBay Standard Envelope orders that are in limbo. Some got their origin scan but many did not. USPS Ground and Prior…

Yes, it's a nightmare scenario right now. Google USPS GA problems and you will see plenty of info including our senators asking the Postmaster General for explanations.

I have tons of eBay Standard Envelope orders that are in limbo. Some got their origin scan but many did not. USPS Ground and Priority packages get scanned and then stall at one of the Atlanta Distribution Centers. I have some of those that have been out for several days and not left Atlanta.

I hear that there are loads of trucks at the distribution center full of mail with no movement for quite some time. The INRs are starting to come in and it would be really great if eBay could help somehow!

Massive USPS delays and not scanning of packages in Atlanta ...ebay not mentioning
Request EBAY post a message which is available to all Buyers and Sellers who may have shipments go through the ATLANTA Metro area of processing. The message should advise everyone as to potential service delays and what EBAY will do to handle this unique and terrible condition. The USPS opened a…

Request EBAY post a message which is available to all Buyers and Sellers who may have shipments go through the ATLANTA Metro area of processing. The message should advise everyone as to potential service delays and what EBAY will do to handle this unique and terrible condition.

Are Atlanta USPS processing center delays harming your business? Let us know in the comments below!

USPSShipping

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Liz Morton is a 17 year ecommerce pro turned indie investigative journalist providing ad-free deep dives on eBay, Amazon, Etsy & more, championing sellers & advocating for corporate accountability.


Recent Comments
Avatar Placeholdermarks304742 minutes ago
Hi, I have a friend who had an interesting experience recently that fell under this issue. They sold an item, packed and dispatched to the UK Ebay hub, this was midway through the period as the pause occurred. They then received a message from the buyer that they had checked tracking and discovered that the item had disappeared on ebay, no advice. It then turned out that the tracking had been fudged and the package was with them but not forwarded on to the USA. A few hours of to and fro to get the answer that it was due to the tariff dilemma. NO fault of the buyer(who had paid) or the seller ((who had been paid) and a strange response that the item could not be delivered. The buyer would be refunded in full, the seller would keep payment and the item would not be returned. Strange, Ebay must be hurting paying our both sides of the deal+
Avatar PlaceholdercwiYesterday
  1. Start building out the brand and promoting the heck out of Canadian sellers to our domestic market. Work with Federal/Provincial level governments in the push to build a strong presence here in Canada.

  2. Add other calculated shipping options than Canada Post UPS/FedEx for domestic shipping - partner with couriers nationwide, leverage agreements and software integrations with courier reseller platforms such as Stallion Express. Build out a crowd sourced network using national/regional retail locations as drop points for rural regions, leveraging transport networks to move packages to courier pickup points, akin to the UK courier model but adapted to the Canadian realities.

  3. Create a centralized international shipping clearing house to aide micro businesses with affordable shipping rates and customs clearance to avoid pitfalls and complexities (akin to US eIS).

  4. Bring features forward to the platform from other localizations, such as prepaid best offer acceptance, etc.

Avatar PlaceholderMotif1234Yesterday
Great article. I believe I have been caught up in this situation. I bought a small item on ebay from a private seller and paid £2.70 postage. They used the ebay labels system. It was tracked through royal mail. I was then asked by royal mail to pay an extra £3.50. I did this, as I wanted the goods and thought maybe the seller had forgotten the postage- human error, which i could get back. It wasn't the sellers fault or mine, but something between ebay and royal mail. Never had that problem in 4 years on ebay with 100 per cent positive feedback for myself. This happened between the 27th April and 7th May 2025. I asked for a refund for postage from ebay, offering all the details and they have refused. To add to the insult, I paid buyer protection, which is useless.