eBay Shipping Label & Messaging Errors 12-19-24

Liz Morton
Liz Morton


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eBay users are experiencing problems with printing shipping labels and sending messages, adding stress to last minute holiday selling.

First, the eBay community and social support pages are being flooded with reports of being unable to purchase shipping labels for any carriers.

Just a few examples:

Can’t print shipping labels
I am also having issues when trying to print a label. I get this message-We are unable to process your payment at this time. Please try again. Please be aware that USPS, Fedex and UPS are experiencing issues at the moment. We apologize for any inconvenience and if affected, ... Kindly advise when…

I am also having issues when trying to print a label. I get this message-We are unable to process your payment at this time. Please try again. Please be aware that USPS, Fedex and UPS are experiencing issues at the moment. We apologize for any inconvenience and if affected, ...

While eBay's error messaging seems to indicate it's a problem with the carriers themselves, sellers report they are still able to print labels for those services from other providers - so the problem is clearly on eBay's side of things.

Others say they are being told by eBay that there is an error processing their payment for the label, but should not be the case as they have funds on balance and a payment method on file to cover the cost.

Cannot Print USPS Labels/Payment Error
Cannot print any labels this morning. Get the following error: “Sorry, 5 labels couldn’t be generated. Payment error: please check your payment method and try again.” According to eBay, there is over $354 of available funds. Never had this issue until today. Ugh.

Cannot print any labels this morning. Get the following error:

"Sorry, 5 labels couldn't be generated.

Payment error: please check your payment method and try again."

According to eBay, there is over $354 of available funds. Never had this issue until today.

eBay support on Twitter has been made aware of the issue, but so far does not seem to be aware that this appears to be a widespread outage.

And as usual, eBay's system status page also shows all green, not recognizing any disruptions or outages for Shipping at this time.

Users are also reporting problems with eBay's new messaging system today, saying when they attempt to send messages, they just get a red dot indicating the message failed to send.

Todays Glitch!
Unable to send messages. ” Looks like something went wrong. Please try again later.” Boy how I wish I got .01 for every time I saw that! Merry Christmas

Unable to send messages. " Looks like something went wrong. Please try again later."

Boy how I wish I got .01 for every time I saw that!

Merry Christmas

These glitches come on top of other shipping problems last week which saw labels printing as Hazmat even if they were for hazardous items and QR codes not being recognized by USPS.

eBay QR Codes Fail As Sellers Experience Shipping Glitches For The Second Day In A Row
eBay sellers experience shipping glitches for second day in a row as QR codes are not recognized when taken to the post office to print labels.

While technical issues can be troublesome any time of year, it's particularly concerning as sellers are bumping up against holiday shipping deadlines and worried about the potential fallout if seasonal gift orders are not delivered on time.

USPS, FedEx & UPS 2024 Holiday Shipping Deadlines
The holiday shopping season kicks into gear with USPS, FedEx, & UPS releasing shipping deadlines to ensure Christmas packages arrive on time.

Are you experiencing problems with eBay shipping labels or messaging? Let us know in the comments below!

eBayTech Issues

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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.

2 comments
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Paul Newman
Sold item and tried on 5 times to print the label that was generated however I could not print. I did this 5 times without no label I thought I would not be charged for each label but I was and they were deducted from my proceeds. I had to manually ship the item and pay out of pocket. However when Ebay forwarded my net $ from the sale. The 5 shipping charges were deducted from my proceeds . Please add the charges for all 5 shipping costs back to my account. Shipping order number 06-12640-61720 # for FedEx and 2 for USPS
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rancher456
MY BUYER REQUESTED USPS GROUND ADVANTAGE. SHIPPING LABEL WANTS ME TO USE FED X ECONOMY. THERE ARE NO USPS SHIPPING METHODS AVAILABLE. WHAT IS WRONG. CALLED EBAY THEIR REPRESENTATIVE SAID A NUMBER OF CONFLICTING STATEMENTS. HE FIRST STATED ALL SELLERS WERE UNABLE TO PURCHASE USPS SHIPPING METHODS. HE LATER SAID THAT WAS NOT TRUE, THAT SOME COULD. HE TOLD ME TO GO TO THE POST OFFICE AND PURCHASE POSTAGE THERE WITH TRACKING AND EBAY WOULD REIMBURSE ME. HE SAID IT WAS A USPS PROBLEM NOT EBAY. HE LATER WOULD NOT CONFIRM THAT COMMENTS. HE SAID HE CREATED AN INTERNAL REPORT # 1-489159285396. I TOLD HIM TO HAVE A SUPERVISOR CALL ME BUTii HAVE NOT HEARD BACK FROM HIM YET. .

Recent Comments
Avatar Placeholderbritishsoeedw-03 hours ago
I'm having the same problem, Vat has ben added to my listings and sales have literally stopped.
Avatar Placeholderblazeaglory8 hours ago
I've been selling on ebay since 2003 but i had to get a new account because after having a perfect feedback with ZERO negative feedback, i had one sale go south where the item i had i simply couldn't find in my inventory! So i ended up Ebay roughly 250$. You'd think they'd call me or message me and work out a plan but no, immediately PAY NOW PAY NOW OR YOUR ACCOUNT GETS CLOSED! I sell hand to mouth and usually each sale gets spent on bills QUICK, so i told Ebay i could pay monthly or weekly and pay the balance off in a month or sooner. Anyways, they closed my perfect TRS account. I mean no sympathy or anything after roughly 20 something odd years...SO now my new account after not selling for several months has only a couple sales. I dunno if things have changed but traffic seems waaaaay down but with this last sale, a nice vintage DAVID YURMAN silver bracelet, i had to ship to an authenticator, which I've never had to do. Hey I'm all for it because on ebay the last 20 years, the silver jewelery market has been HIGH RISK fakes labeled .925 yet NOT! LOL So I'm ok with an authenticator program that actually WORKS! So now the bracelet has been in Carlsbad since Monday May 19th 2025. I'm hoping it gets verified by tomorrow. I'll keep you all posted
Avatar Placeholderfoxxresell16 hours ago
An update to this situation - Today I will return to Above Average but this last month cost me a 91.8% reduction in impressions, 53.8% drop in listing page views, and 78% drop in revenue as well as paying an additional 6% final value fee on the sales I made. I was fortunate I had some higher value items sell this last week or my revenue numbers would have been well into the 80%.

eBay has responded to my BBB complaint twice. The first time they told me that I deserved below standard because my shipping scans were below the threshold. However, I had to quote their own website to them saying that shipping numbers cannot lead to downgrade to Below Standard.

The second response they just said I would be restored on May 20th completely ignoring the issue at hand, admitting an issue existed, or offering any type of solution.

If this concerns you, this happened to you, or worried it may happen, please take action. In fact, take action anytime eBay is doing somethning wrong. They will change nothing if you don't say anything. If enough people speak up, they do make changes.