eBay Glitch Creates Business Policy Mayhem

Liz Morton
Liz Morton


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UPDATE 6-12-23

New information from affected sellers indicates the issue causing multiple business policies to be auto-generated may be due to lingering old, now discontinued international shipping options as eBay transitions to new eBay International Shipping program.

EIS is the new eBay International Shipping program which has replaced both the GSP (Global Shipping Program) and EISD (eBay International Standard Delivery) programs.

It appears this issue is occuring for business policies which had previously included eBay International Standard Delivery (EISD) and removing that now discontinued option may fix the problem.

Re: eBay Auto-Generating Multiple Business Policies
I was going through a friend’s biz policies with them to see why they were seeing these auto-generated policies since this friend was not opted in to EIS. That friend offered EISD shipping on some of their policies. EISD is set to be discontinued by the end of the month but we’ve seen reports it’s…

I was going through a friend's biz policies with them to see why they were seeing these auto-generated policies since this friend was not opted in to EIS.

That friend offered EISD shipping on some of their policies. EISD is set to be discontinued by the end of the month but we've seen reports it's been discontinued already for many sellers.

What we discovered is the duplicate policies were created only when the original policy offered EISD. If you go back to the original policy and select something other than EISD like a) USPS or b) select nothing so it can default to EIS if you're opted in - then you can reassign listings to their original policies and delete the duplicates.

The elimination of EISD caused existing policies to be invalid since they offered international shipping but there was no shipping service selected.


UPDATE 5-30-23

Sellers have confirmed the new eBay International Shipping program is the cause of this business policy problem and currently the only fix is to opt out of EIS.

Re: eBay Auto-Generating Multiple Business Policies
Hi, I chatted with customer service and got clarification; if you remove International Shipping from your Business policies, the system stops generating excess policies (this worked for me). If you haven’t opted out of International Shipping, you’re still in the program, and your listings are elig…

I chatted with customer service and got clarification; if you remove International Shipping from your Business policies, the system stops generating excess policies (this worked for me).

If you haven't opted out of International Shipping, you're still in the program, and your listings are eligible for International Shipping. I tested this with an incognito browser.

We opted out of EIS (about 5% of our sales are international), and then fixed all of our shipping policies to remove international shipping. We had to end the listing that had been auto generated, but everything is now back to pre-EIS, only no international options.

To enroll or unenroll from EIS, go to:

https://www.ebay.com/ship/prf


eBay sellers are frustrated with yet another glitch, this time automatically creating multiple new business policies when creating listings. Is new eBay International Shipping program to blame?

eBay Auto-Generating Multiple Business Policies
eBay has been auto-creating multiple new business policies (shipping policies and return policies). Items that I have for sale are then being moved automatically into the new shipping policies. Newly created listings are unable to go live because I get the following error: ’There is an issue with…

eBay has been auto-creating multiple new business policies (shipping policies and return policies). Items that I have for sale are then being moved automatically into the new shipping policies. Newly created listings are unable to go live because I get the following error: 'There is an issue with your listing: Shipping Policy'.

Not sure what the problem is, but it seems to be related to the new international shipping program. If I don't keep on top of it, eBay will create hundreds of business policies automatically. Each new policy has a string of computer code at the end of it.

I'm having the same problem. The only way I found I could fix it is to revise the listing by choosing one of my shipping policies where I exclude the other countries. Save it and then go back in to revise it again with the correct shipping policy. It will then show that it ships to the other countries. I finally gave up trying to fix them because it was just too time consuming.

eBay keeps creating new shipping polices
Hi, I am having an incredibly frustrating issue with listing. I can’t. While I can technically list, every time I try eBay is making a new shipping policy and changes it on my listing. I use business policies. I spent a lot of time setting up exactly what I needed. It worked great until last night…

I am having an incredibly frustrating issue with listing. I can't. While I can technically list, every time I try eBay is making a new shipping policy and changes it on my listing. I use business policies. I spent a lot of time setting up exactly what I needed. It worked great until last night when this started. I can not list anything without the policies I made. My business policy page is filling up with eBay created policies. Please make it stop.

If anyone comes across this I wanted to be sure I left the solution I found. I had to remove "International Shipping" from all shipping policies. I hadn't received any international orders anyway since turning it on a month ago. I wish eBay would finally get the kinks worked out of the NEW international shipping program. If you don't get a lot of international orders, just turn it off for now.

Reseller and Youtuber Josh Galt also posted a video showing this same issue - every time he tries to select his desired shipping policy when creating a listing, it changes from his selection to a new policy that is auto-generated by eBay.

Sellers have been experiencing many business impacting glitches and technical issues on the site since eBay began their big push to move all sellers in to the new international program, with some even blaming the  program for drastic drops in views and sales.

Is eBay International Shipping Causing Drop In Views & Sales?
Sellers report views & sales drop after being auto-enrolled in eBay International Shipping - are bugs in EIS program to blame?

It appears eBay may be taking the Silicon Valley mantra of "move fast and break things" a little too seriously with this new program.


Let us know in the comments below if you are experiencing this business policy glitch or any other technical issues connected to eBay International Shipping!

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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.

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Theoickingbug
I have not been able to list on EBay since May 31…getting an error as soon as I attempt to create a new listing saying my business policies are not supported. It doesn’t load my default shipping or return policy and directs me to the web app to update but I’m unable to correct this error. I have not had international shipping but it appears they were trying to force me into it. I opened a ticket with EBay and they said it would be corrected in 48 hours…yeh right. I had created 12 drafts the day before that were all great and then the next day I can’t create one? Come on….at least admit that you are messing with the code. I am so frustrated. Now that I read this post I’m going to see if they put international shipping in my policies. It almost looks like they are defaulting it into all new listings.

Recent Comments
Avatar Placeholderterry55Yesterday
Sales down 40% from last year, this is gonna be a small business killer
Avatar PlaceholderJaeLynn2 days ago
I've had this happen a few times, and it confused me. One seller alleged that they had to use Amazon's services to make sure I got my item in time. I recently bought something simple, and the seller made a mistake. They'd sent me 3 different messages, one of them too early, telling me they hoped my item arrived in perfect condition. The next day, the item was marked as shipped, and I got an official Ebay shipping email. The seller was using direct messages to give me item updates. If I wanted Amazon, I'd have used them myself! lol
Avatar Placeholderlessthanthreerecords3 days ago
Happening to me too. On my active listings page (with the full list) it looks fine, but when I click on them, many have the random characters. I reported it, and that's when one glitch led to another! As I was typing the message after clicking the "?", letters were repeatedly not coming up (usually one or two at the end of a word). I was finally able to get the message entered, but how tedious!