eBay Sellers: Sales Down Due to PayPal MOS Glitch
By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
November 29, 2007

A PayPal glitch first reported on October 26 has yet to be fixed, and some eBay sellers say the problem has had a significant impact on their bottom line. The problem is with the MultiOrder Shipping (MOS) feature on PayPal, a feature that launched 1 year ago designed to save time and make sellers' lives easier by allowing them to print up to 50 domestic USPS shipping labels at a time directly from their PayPal account.

"OK this has now officially &%@#!!cked my entire years profits," wrote one seller on the eBay discussion boards. "I had to hire someone to help me with this mess! Does anyone know how to contact paypal / ebay shareholders?"

Another seller wrote to AuctionBytes, "Not only is the multi order feature broken in terms of importing but it prints already shipped labels that take about a month for reimbursement and is marking instant payments as pending so that customers are getting shipments a week late shipping one by one is not only time consuming but uses more ink and creates a backlog of paperwork among many other frustrations."

Sellers also expressed concerned they would end up losing "Item Not Received" claims due to lack of tracking data. The MOS feature includes USPS Shipment Confirmation Acceptance Notice (SCAN), which shows all of the packages associated with a single SCAN form as "Shipment Accepted" so that sellers can prove that the USPS received their packages.

Some sellers are so frustrated over the problem, which is 5 weeks old - and the fact that eBay and PayPal have failed to effectively communicate with them over the issue - that they have filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau. Some are also urging colleagues to contact the media and call in to eBay's Town Hall meeting event scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

The problem appears to impacting a subset of sellers. AuctionBytes sent an inquiry for an update on the problem on Tuesday morning and had yet to hear back from PayPal by Wednesday evening.