eBay USPS Hazmat Snafu Hazard To Seller Mental Health As Holiday Shipping Cutoffs Approach

Liz Morton
Liz Morton


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UPDATE 12-12-24

eBay community staff have responded, alerting sellers that the issue has been fixed and they will need to void affected labels.

Re: USPS ground labels are printing as Hazmat
wrote: wrote: I am also experiencing this issue using USPS Ground Advantage with non-hazardous selected. I wonder if we can just cover/mark through the HAZMAT designation on the shipping label? Hey thanks for the tag. We have gone ahead and reported this to our shipping teams for rev…

Kyle@ebay said:

I just received word that the issue that caused this to happen has been corrected! Any labels that erroneously state "Hazmat" on them will need to be voided, and a new label created.

A standalone announcement has also been posted, advising sellers they will receive protection for any late shipments cause by the issue.

Resolved: USPS labels with incorrect hazardous materials designation
There was a technical issue impacting some eBay Labels for USPS Ground Advantage on December 12, 2024 which has now been resolved. Impacted labels were generated indicating the package contains hazardous goods identified with an oversized letter “H” in the upper left corner of the label. If you ha…

There was a technical issue impacting some eBay Labels for USPS Ground Advantage on December 12, 2024 which has now been resolved.

Impacted labels were generated indicating the package contains hazardous goods identified with an oversized letter “H” in the upper left corner of the label.

  • If you have not already shipped impacted packages, we recommend that you void the label and generate a new label.
  • If you have shipped your item, your item will be processed for delivery by USPS.

Seller protections for late shipment will be extended for these transactions.


eBay sellers are in a panic this morning as all USPS Ground Advantage labels purchased through the platform appear to be being designated as Hazmat restricted even for non-hazardous items.

There are multiple reports across the eBay community and social media, but so far no answers from eBay.

Ebay labels say “hazmat” on them
This is a first. I use bulk shipping and all my labels are marked hazmat. I thought maybe I had clicked on something that would have done this but I went back in and purchased an extra label on one just to see and it clearly says “no hazmat material” yet when the label is generated it says “hazmat…

This is a first. I use bulk shipping and all my labels are marked hazmat. I thought maybe I had clicked on something that would have done this but I went back in and purchased an extra label on one just to see and it clearly says "no hazmat material" yet when the label is generated it says "hazmat". Anyone else having this experience?

I am having the same issue, all of my non-hazmat items are printing hazmat only labels.

All USPS shipping labels generated as HAZMAT today. Why?
I bulk purchased numerous labels at the same time as I always do every day. My items are clothing. ALL labels this morning generated as H for HAZMAT and they all say “HAZMAT - Surface Transportation Only” I have never even touched the “this package contains non-hazardous materials” dropdown or a…

I bulk purchased numerous labels at the same time as I always do every day. My items are clothing. ALL labels this morning generated as H for HAZMAT and they all say "HAZMAT - Surface Transportation Only"

I have never even touched the "this package contains non-hazardous materials" dropdown or attempted to change that default, and afaik it would need to be changed for each item individually.

What is happening here?

USPS ground labels are printing as Hazmat
All the USPS ground labels I am printing are saying Hazmat. The items are “considered” hazmat. examples: a cotton purse, spanx, cotton liner, handbag. Nothing charges or has a battery. Is anyone else having these issues.....…

All the USPS ground labels I am printing are saying Hazmat.
The items are "considered" hazmat. examples: a cotton purse, spanx, cotton liner, handbag. Nothing charges or has a battery.

Is anyone else having these issues........

Source: Reddit

The obvious technical issue couldn't come at a worse time as sellers are already stressed about rapidly approaching holiday shipping deadlines for all the major carriers and potential fallout if 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.

eBay's system status page currently shows no outages or disruptions and the company has yet to acknowledge the issue or provide a timeline for a fix as of time of publishing.

Sellers who have the option to use alternate sources like Pirate Ship or Stamps.com to purchase postage would be wise to do so until the eBay problem gets sorted out.

eBayShippingUSPSTech 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.


Recent Comments
Avatar PlaceholderConcerned44 minutes ago
It is Slowwwwwww and is more expensive to the buyer. In the past items I have ordered will sit at the hub for around 2 weeks. I avoid ebay unless I cannot get it elsewhere.
Avatar Placeholdermarks30474 hours 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.