Dear Sellers, 

 

We are happy to share with you that we updated the new “Packing Slip and Invoice” experience. 

The new flow of “Print packing slip and more” has been improved based on the feedback that we received from sellers.  

 

The new documents support all features that were supported on the old invoice documents. The features are already live and available to you.

 

In addition, sellers now have many options to customize these documents to drive buyer engagement. For example, a QR code linking to the eBay shop and the shop-logo can be included directly on the print document. 

 

You can read more about the new documents here.

 

The old documents will be fully replaced soon. We want to thank all sellers who shared constructive feedback with eBay on this.

 

Kind Regards,

eBay Community Team

Comments
Specialist

Hurrah!  Finally, after several decades of struggle, ebay has added a SKU to the packing slip.  This is starting to get like some kind of e-commerce system!

 

It seems to (hopefully) remember my "Customise" settings during my initial testing, but my complaint is that it doesn't remember my top-level selections - e.g. whether I want a Packing slip, Order Receipt, Address label etc.  Most sellers will want the same thing every time, it would get tedious having to tick the right thing and untick the Packing slip every time, a minimum of two clicks.

 

It definitely looks much prettier than the very ancient looking old one.

Specialist

Showing the "return policy" results in the following...

 

Return accepted, item must be returned in 14 days. The buyer is responsible for return P&P costs.

 

I'd worry that this may contravene consumer rights, as it does not state that they are not responsible in some circumstances.  It's possible that unscrupulous sellers could use this option as a way of discouraging the return of faulty goods.

 

Also, I don't really see much difference between the Packing Slip and Order Receipt - they're almost identical, could they not be combined?

Specialist

I've been using this for a couple of days now.  I've found a couple of significant annoyances.  Hopefully someone is actually reading this and would welcome constructive feedback...

 

Note for buyer:  The choices available in the pull-down selection under "Pick a thank you note" are quite cringey and smothered in exclamation marks, e.g. "Thanks for your purchase! I hope you love it!".  So I selected the "A message for the buyer" option and typed my own.  This all works at that moment.  But when I come back to it the next time, this setting does not get remembered.  My message is stored, but the selection has switched back to the "Pick a thank you note" option.

 

Is there a reason why it can't state "Invoice", perhaps as an option?  It appears to be an invoice, but has "Packing Slip" at the top.  Business customers often ask for an invoice, it appears that ebay no longer has a facility to produce something that says it is one.

 

The buyer's address contains the "ebayxyz123bla" nonsense on line 2 that ebay decided to insert a while back.  Most addressing and invoicing systems remove this, it looks messy being within the address.  I'd prefer if ebay had never added this annoyance, but as it's there then it needs to be programmatically removed.

Helper

Why does the order receipt still say 'Not for buyer'

 

As the main purpose of the reciept is to give the buyer a receipt / Invoice.

 

Am i doing thing wrong? Is this the case for others?

Specialist

It baffled me at first too.  But I think the top one (ticked by default) is for your customer, and the second one is an optional second copy for if you want one for your records.

 

As I've noted above, it's not possible to produce anything for your customer that actually states that it's an "invoice", despite the thread title.  I think it has all the right content, but states that it's merely a "packing slip".

 

It's very pretty though.  Full marks on the cosmetics side of things, and also the SKU is a massively overdue update.

Engager

How do you get the packing slip and address label to print on a single sheet of A4 paper?

Specialist

You can't, they're separate pages.  There isn't an equivalent of the old " Address labels and invoice/packing slip" option.

 

If you're using integrated labels then I'd assume someone will be selling suitable sheets already, if not then they will be shortly.  In which case they'd put the peel-off label around the buyer's address on the standard Packing Slip layout.  But then your buyer will get a packing slip (invoice?) with a hole where their details should be, which would make it invalid as a document.

 

I used to use Integrated Labels years ago, but it's a bit old-fashioned now.

 

I'd suggest that ebay should have started this improvement by asking sellers what they print and what they use them for.  It looks like they've just charged in head-first and made a load of stuff.  Presumably sellers are required to adapt to what ebay's decided.

Engager

As others have said, the document looks very nice but is completely useless for business sellers using integrated label paper. Whether or not someone decides to manufacture integrated label paper to fit ebay's new design is largely irrelevant to those who already have thousands of sheets of existing A4 label paper in stock. As things stand, sellers using standard existing formats of integrated label paper will have to cut the delivery address part out of every sheet in order to obtain the address label without cutting out other important info from the document, or showing half the sellers address and other text on the address label.

We need print options to fit the information into the standard integrated label formats that currently exist, or customisation options to move the delivery address and other parts to the correct position for said formats.

Business sellers also required by HMRC to provide to customers with, or at least keep copies of, VAT invoices for accounting purposes which have the word 'INVOICE' rather than 'PACKING SLIP' printed on the document.

If you remove the 'print invoice' option, in order to comply with HMRC VAT regulations business sellers will have to manually create a proper VAT invoice for every sale, which is obviously not a feasible option for most.

Surely the simplest resolution to these issues would be to leave the existing print invoice option available for those who need it, why must this option be removed in early 2022 as advised?

If it must go then these issues surely need to be resolved before it does.

 

Specialist

I don't think that the existing integrated label format was ever any kind of official standard, the suppliers of them just placed the peel-off section where ebay happened to put the address on the old format invoice/packing slip.

 

I doubt that they're going to revise the new one to fit the layout of the old one.

 

As you suggest, the only solution would be to keep the old format going for a while, which would be a reasonable request as I don't think they've given any notice of its demise before two weeks ago.

 

Regardless of layout, I don't think there's a single sheet option that would be suitable for using with integrated labels anyway, at least not without invalidating the "invoice" (that doesn't state that it's an invoice).

 

All in all, it's generally a vast improvement cosmetically and actually including the SKU field is a long-overdue improvement, but ebay are showing their usual lack of consultation and consideration of sellers' actual real world needs.  There's definitely a one-way valve on communication with them, they lock themselves away while producing it, then just throw it at us.

Engager

'I don't think that the existing integrated label format was ever any kind of official standard, the suppliers of them just placed the peel-off section where ebay happened to put the address on the old format invoice/packing slip.'

 

There are many existing formats suitable for ebay, Amazon, click&Drop etc. For example... S11, S14, S17, S19, 11/K, 14/N, these types are all for sale on ebay right now and ebay could have designed the document layout to fit one of them. The fact that they have made no attempt to fix this, despite receiving hundreds of complaints from sellers several months back when it was first dropped on us, implies that ebay do not want sellers using integrated labels and applying their own postage, I guess they want us to use Packlink or other systems that they can make money from. That's a cynical view I know and I do hope it isn't the case, but the fact that they have now added the buyer's mobile number to this part suggests otherwise as I doubt people would thank us for displaying it in plain view on their parcel or envelope.

And what on earth is that ebay code still doing in the middle of the buyer's address? When this was introduced, ages ago, we were assured that the code would not print, yet here we are now with a completely new document format and it is still in there.

 

'Regardless of layout, I don't think there's a single sheet option that would be suitable for using with integrated labels anyway, at least not without invalidating the "invoice" (that doesn't state that it's an invoice).'

 

It doesn't matter if removing the label invalidates the invoice as an invoice (if it even counted as one in the first place) because it's not necessary to provide a physical valid invoice with every order; the packing slip with the label removed is still perfectly fine as a packing slip, and when VAT invoices are requested they can simply be printed to a pdf and sent electronically with all info intact. We just need packing slips that we can print on integrated paper with the  label part containing only the delivery address, plus the option to print a valid invoice to a pdf when needed. Is that too much to ask? At present, the 'print invoice' option provides both of these things in one.

 

We're not resistant to change and improvements, far from it but we're a 2-person business processing a relatively large amount of orders per day, we have to have super efficient processes in place to achieve that and we simply can't print labels separately to packing slips due to the extra cost, complication and time involved. We use a franking machine for postage, so we need a packing slip with integrated labels and no other postage or label printing options that we've seen would work for us and we can't be alone in that respect I'm sure. 

 

All we need is for ebay to move the information around to fit one fo the common formats (or give us a customisation option to place things where they are needed) and either add the work INVOICE.

 

Alternatively, and surely by far the simplest solution for all, would be to just leave the old 'print invoice' option available for those who need it.  

Specialist

Going a little off-topic but related, I used to use integrated labels, until ebay shrank the fonts so they were like smallprint a few years ago.  I don't know whether they fixed this or people are still sending them with tiny writing as the address.

 

Anyway, I took this as my cue to review what I was doing and how, and concluded that it made sense to switch to printing the invoice/packing slip on plain paper (which costs a lot less than IL sheets), together with a separate printed address label.  The label printer was a single one-off cost, and the labels are supplied free by Royal Mail if using their business account, no ink or toner required as they're thermally printed.

 

I know this is all an annoyance, but it may be worth taking this as an opportunity to review whether it may be worth changing your workflow.  The last time I looked, franking cost a fair bit more than a business account, but I know prices and circumstances can differ.

 

I print all labels and all invoices in one hit each, and the two are in the same order.  I usually glance to ensure I haven't gone adrift, but it's never happened so far.

 

My thinking is that if I'm going to include a piece of paper then it should be something that is an invoice.  I often sell to businesses, so if I just routinely include one every time then it avoids them and me the hassle of providing one later.  So it would currently cause me more work if I switch from the current one (that states "Invoice") to the new one (that only states "Packing Slip").

Since we have been using eBay, we have been using a specific type of integrated label sheets (sticky label goes on the envelope and invoice with item) and we have had to adjust margins slightly, when we first starting using them (and again when they fiddled with the fonts) but its been working perfectly for years. Now they are bring in this new packing slip and the margins or layout cannot be adjusted so we now have over a box of these integrated label sheets that are now completely useless.

 

 

Helper

Hi Ebay,

 

Suggestions if you are open to suggestions which seems unlikely!  All we can do is keep trying.

 

Packing slip wording should be changed to Invoice (or have a specific Invoice documentation)

There is no need to include the telephone number on the documentation

As others have raised why is the Ebay ref within the address?

 

 

Conversationalist

I use an integrated label to produce an invoice and address all in one.  The new offerings do not provide this - so this is a very backward step.  That's why the change failed the last time it was introduced.  Ebay - Don't fix what isn't broken!

Visitor

The only advantage for me on using ebay and paying its fees is really having no issues handling invoices/tax collection.

If I lose that advantage I'll just cancel the ebay account and sell directly paying much much lower fees.

Visitor

Why not just keep both options available easy as that ebay, we like the print invoice and for those who dont they can use the new system, please please dont phase it out just leave it

Visitor

Iceblue we agree with you!!

Visitor

I am not happy that Ebay is removing the Print invoices we used intergrated papers for this and we have alot of them in stock as we bulk buy, so please leave that still there and give the sellers a choice after all they can choose what they want.

 

Please note ebay if this is in the interest of the Sellers then im not happy as as a seller as doesnt work with me so please leave the print invoices option there please!!

Helper

I now have to use 3 sheets of paper instead of 2. What happened to "Save the Planet"?

The last line on the postal address for Royal Mail should be the postcode, that is now at the end of a long line followed by United Kingdom, which is not needed when posting from UK to UK

The bit of gobbledegook in the middle of the address is nonsence to anyone else but Ebay and they probably don't know what it means

The address print is very small so any shortsighted posties will have trouble reading it

Please leave the old version on so that those who want to use it can.

 

Many complained last time you tried to foist it on us and you reinstated the old model  but nothing seems to have been changed in the new format, though you say you listened to us,

I don't think so!

Contributor

Maybe I am in a minority but one of the things I use the most on the current packing slip is what type of postage the buyer has selected. This is because I offer multiple postage options for the buyer to choose from ( 2nd Class, 1st Class, 1st Class Signed For, 2nd Class Signed For and Special Delivery).  This detail is currently shown on the packing slips using the old, soon to be removed, "Print postage labels or invoices" option but is not shown using the "Print packing slips/invoices" option.  At the moment, when I parcel up an item for shipping I note the postage option on the packing slip and write it on the outside of the package. If it is not shown then I am going to have wrap the parcel then go and look at each individual order details and find what option the customer has selected but all that does is make a curently simple process extremely long winded.

Visitor
Issue for me is killing invoices.
How is any kind of sale taken seriously without proper invoices and tax
handling?

If this is withdrawn as a service, then this is no longer a serious selling
platform and business will be taken elsewhere.

Printouts can be adjusted, forms can be adjusted.
Invoices MUST subsist!
Specialist

I was wondering whether the omission of the invoice marks a shift in our relationship with them and buyers...

 

Is the legal situation is that the buyer buys from ebay, who subcontracts the supply of the physical goods to us, their supplier?

 

If this is the case then my turnover has just reduced by 15-25%+, as I'm only legally selling to ebay after deduction of their fees.

 

But I've just checked a random item I've bought, I received only an "Order confirmed" email from ebay, and they don't provide any means of me obtaining an invoice from my purchase history.

 

Here's what the government has to say about it...

 

https://www.gov.uk/invoicing-and-taking-payment-from-customers

 

If you sell a customer a product or a service, you need to give them an invoice (bill) by law if both you and the customer are registered for VAT (a business to business transaction). An invoice is not the same as a receipt, which is an acknowledgement of payment.

 

In practice, a receipt is often actually an invoice, e.g. when I buy retail products from Screwfix they give me an invoice that states that I've paid it.

 

Bizarrely, ebay produces a "receipt" as an optional second page.  This does contain VAT info, so may be sufficient as an invoice, although I assume it would need to state this, I do not know the legal ins and outs.  This can also optionally contain the SKU, so could serve as a packing slip too, but does not contain the "Note For Buyer" option so cannot contain any customer service info.  However, it also states "Not for buyer", which makes absolutely no sense - presumably they are thinking that this is purely for sellers who want a paper record for themselves.

 

All in all, a complete muddle.  I don't understand the "Packing slip" / "Order receipt" distinction, as they're 95% identical.  Just make one document that has all options, doesn't say "Not for buyer" and sellers can just print two copies if they really want one for themselves.

 

So, as things stand, buyers can not obtain an invoice by any means therefore selling via ebay appears to be illegal according to UK law.

Contributor

I didnt give any feedback and i also like to use print invoice so why remove that away or phase that out for? just leave it where it is and let us use that and if others want to use new invoice with QR code let them, simple, we as sellers need the tools that help us run a business not make it hard ebay, come on sort it out!!!

Specialist

I've got a banner at the top of Orders >> Awaiting Dispatch...

 

Print Invoices - Upcoming changes: All 'Print Invoices' features have been migrated to 'Print packing slip/Invoices and more' in the Seller Hub Orders tab. 'Print invoices' will be phased out in early 2022.

 

In fact, the option is called "Print packing slip and more", note the omission of the word "Invoices".  In reality it's not actually possible to produce anything that states that it's an invoice.

 

None of this makes any sense.  Hopefully ebay is going to add a way of producing an "Invoice" before removing the old option, otherwise they're forcing all VAT-registered sellers to trade illegally, unless they get the typewriter out and manually produce one for each customer.

I like the link and QR code, but some of my customers ask for an invoice. Are we not going to be able to produce invoices at all??? I am not VAT registered, so it's not a deal breaker for meas a seller,  but when I buy something,  I want a receipt/ invoice, not a packing slip. I do not want to print a receipt and a packing slip, as it will double the depth of my letter size packages,  and add to the weight.

Engager

Just to add my comments to the above with a couple of other issues I've noticed...

 

There is no 'unit price' shown - so if someboy orders 9 of a particular item for example, it just shows the total amount, not the price per item. Any business documents (such as the non-existant 'Invoice' option we require) will need to show unit pricing.

 

Any orders for 'Click & Collect' or 'Global Shipping Programme' don't actually show the buyer's address, just the C&C/GSP shipping address. Again, any document for a business buyer needs to show the buyer's actual address along with the shipping address.

 

So, please eBay, can you ensure the following things are rectified before removing the old print invoice options?...

 

1) We need an "Invoice" option to comply with our legal obligation for providing VAT invoices to VAT registered buyers. I must stress how important this is.

2) Please tweak the layout to match the outgoing one so any sellers with boxes full of integrated label sheets can still use them (the cosmetic look is nice though).

3) The "Postage Method" needs to be shown on all document formats - how does the packer know what method to ship an order on without this?

4) Unit pricing needs to be shown when a customer orders more than one of a particular item. Business documents require this.

5) Please add the buyer's actual address for any GSP / Click & Collect orders. Again, business buyers will need their own address shown on any invoices.

6) The random code shown in the address seems pointless, please can it be removed from any printable documents as it looks messy and I can't see how it provides any functional purpose. Having it shown digitally on the order info is fine if eBay must have it there for whatever reason.

 

There are a couple of things I like about the new format though, so it's not all negative!...

 

1) Having the 'buyer message' / 'seller notes' shown is good, this was always needed so is appreciated.

2) The cosmetic look of the documents is nice. As functional as the old option is, it was looking a bit dated.

 

Please can eBay ensure the issues raised in this thread be addressed before removing the old format? I'm sure you will remember the last time you removed the old format without notice it caused a massive headache for lots of sellers and the subsequent backlash showed this, please don't make the same mistake twice. The sellers (eBay's customers) have told you what is needed, some of it has been addressed, but lots of it hasn't.

 

Link to previous seller forum backlash: https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Business-Seller-Board/Printing-packaging-invoice/td-p/6987748

 

Thank you.

Engager

Dear Community Team,

 

It's been over 6 weeks since the updated "New Packing Slip and Invoice Experience" was announced, which amongst other things still doesn't provide a customer VAT invoice and still does not allow customisation to fit A4 integrated label paper that 1000's of us are currently using to print invoices with the the old 'print invoice' function.

Despite the many comments and worries posted since, there's been no update to this and we have no idea if you are listening to us or have any plans to address these very important issues.

The old print invoice functionality is very important to a large number of your members and, with no further updates provided, this situation is causing stress and worry as we wait for the hammer to fall 'in early 2022' if you remove it without providing an alternative that is useable.

Please let us know your intentions.

 

Specialist

I've switched to the new format since I first took an interest several weeks ago.  As a packing slip it's very good.  I always used to send an "Invoice" in the old format with every order, so I didn't normally get asked for them by business customers.

 

Since switching to the new "Packing Slip" format I've been asked for an invoice 3 times already.  I then have to print to pdf from the old format and email it to the seller, using their email address that is on this invoice.  I won't be able to do this if/when the old format is removed.

 

I really can't believe I need to state this to one of the world's leading e-commerce platforms, but it's essential that sellers can produce an invoice (that states it's an "invoice") for their customers.  This is a legal requirement, if it can't be done then sellers and ebay are trading illegally.

 

Sadly, I suspect that the most urgent action is likely to be concentrated on removing that last source of the buyer's email address rather than on actually solving the issue.

Engager

Well it seems as though eBay have now removed the old layout. There does appear to be a new 'Invoice for your own records' option but it is still missing important info which we need. Namely...

 

1) Tweaking the layout to match the outgoing one so any sellers with boxes full of integrated label sheets can still use them.

2) Unit pricing still isn't shown when a customer orders more than one of a particular item. Business documents require this!

3) We need the buyer's actual address for any GSP / Click & Collect orders shown on the printout. Business buyers will need their own address shown on any invoice documents. What good is an invoice for 'Joe Bloggs Builders Merchant' having an Argos store address on it?

 

I'm aware you can still find info for points 2 & 3 elsewhere on the order details, but all this info used to be on one clear document we could print out. Why do eBay continuously remove functionality and efficiency from their order processing for business sellers who make them the most money?! 

 

Please eBay, listen to the suggestions, they are being made for a reason.

 

Visitor

Well... 

 

The new document is *a mess*:

- It has the extra "Packing Slip" mention (which demotes the document)

- It has an order id / sales record / date (but no invoice number / date)

- Has no unit price on each row

- No tax rate on each row

- Has no row number

- Tries to fuse different types of documents and refers "addresses" (post) instead of buyer/seller

- No payment information

- No postage method (required for customs)

- Has no VAT/TAX id 

- You can't customize a logo without paying for a "store"

 

For instance, from an accounting point of view, this would be worth zero in Portugal.

Even the invoice "for your records" is better than this.

 

Lessons must be learned that there is a *MINIMUM* that a service must provide on an invoice!

That's expected from any e-marketing site!

 

As soon as I get my *FIRST* customs "improper-invoice-related" issue, I'll *immediatly* move all my outside EU sales off ebay by restricting all sales to EU-only countries.

The only advantage of paying fees to use ebay is to get VAT collection and proper invoice.

If this disappears cheaper/easier ways to sell will be found.

Visitor

Now ebay (at least ebay.ie) has removed the "invoice" word, naming it "Packing Slip". So, it's as now useless as the "not for buyer" Invoice.

 

So, I have no legal documents to use for customs as produced by ebay.

If no useful documents are produced I am searching for alternatives to sell to outside EU and to UK.

How on earth did ebay not learn from the last time they implemented this then reversed it.

 

Many sellers use double integrated labels with removable sticky sections where the shiop from and ship to addresses are. 

 

Now both addresses have been moved which renders these labels useless and makes it so much more difficult for me to match packed orders and courier labels.

 

Please move the addresses on this new packing list to the same place as the old one.

 

Do you realise you have just shut down many businesses who sell these labels on the very platform that has now made them redundant.

 

Please advise on an urgent update.

Contributor

Hi

Can someone help me with this new invoice/packing slip.  I use the old one every day and it was perfect for me.  The new on has completely screwed up my labels I use for this purpose.  

For some reason there is an eBay reference number in the middle of the address, plus the customers phone number is shown also. 
minder the address is a massive li g number @members.eBay.com then the order number below that.  All are now showing on the label. 
Customising does not help at all.  Can someone e please give me some advice.  I have spoken with eBay and they were pretty hopeless to be honest. 
Many thanks for any suggestions apart from now handwriting envelopes.  

Has anyone found any integrated labels to use for the new format?

Contributor
No, afraid not. I am now handwriting envelopes. I was on the phone to eBay for over an hour yesterday. Finally got though to someone in Ireland who understood the issue but was saying the old format is very unlikely to come back unless they get a lot of requests for it to.
Specialist

Anyone would be made to produce sheets for this new format.  They could revise it at any time, plus also the address has that ebayxyz123 rubbish in it.

 

It looks like this is some kind of prison bully tactic to try and force sellers into using their own overpriced delivery services, by making other options as difficult as possible.

Contributor
When I spoke to one of their experts they said the ebay1234 rubbish in the
middle of the address is a Royal Mail reference that they understand.
Seems nonsense to me.
Contributor

Having now had to start using the new "Print experience" I have three problems and if anyone knows a solution please, please, tell me. I have also given this feedback via the "Share your experience" button but of course that is unlikely to receive a reply.

 

1 (of 3) Having yesterday been forced to use this new print documents experience for the first time, I set up how I want the packing slip to look with my logo, personalised message etc & today I had to re-do this as the settings had reverted back to the default option.

 

2 (of 3) The new packing slip has a line that says "Postage" the old packing slip showed the postal service eg Royal Mail International Signed.  This was very useful because I usually have five possible option for most of my listings so now I have to go back to the manage orders screen and check each order individually -  or, I have just found out I could print out the pick list option (more wasted paper) because the postal service is shown on there - why there I have no idea  - all this means more admin time which means less listing time. Is that not getting the priorities the wrong way around?

 

3 (of 3)Having previously given feedback about there being no provision for the label format  I use (Avery 7163) another problem encountered today is that for EU addresses (and presumably other countries where eBay collects the taxes) the VAT Paid IOSS code is not generated in the "Address Label" print option.

If there is no IOSS code in the customer address then they get charged for their taxes again even though they have already paid them. Is there any quicker way of upsetting your customers or am I meant to remember to correct a problem that is not of my making?

Specialist

In reply to the above...

 

1)  Resetting all the settings was today's special treat for us all.  It's kept all its settings until now, allegedly this may be because a new version's been rolled out but I can't tell any difference.  Perhaps we can now expect all our settings to be wiped out every time they update it, think of it as a special treat every now and then from our great masters.

 

(2) & (3) These have already been raised multiple times by others and ebay has not commented or promised any action.

 

I've given up expecting ebay to do anything about any of it.  They do not appear to care in the slightest about sellers' concerns or even UK law.

Conversationalist

There is also the issue of copy buyers full address to clipboard which now includes eBay's rather strange address line (eg: ebaynjtjqxv) which was not there before the changes were made. Bassically before I could copy and past the customers address when creating my own address lables. Now I have to edit all this "**bleep**" (eg: ebaynjtjqxv) out. This "strange" eBay line in the customers address (ebaynjtjqxv) appears on the new invoice/packing slip. I wonder if the customer is scratching their head seeing this strange extra line in their address.

 

One other frustrating thing before I go, the new invoice/packing slip does not show the amount the customer paid per item (if they purchased multiple items with multiple purchase discounts) now they only see the total discount for their order.

 

It would be nice if eBay allowed sellers to have the option of old or new invoice/packing slip. But as with so much so-called progress with eBay that is NOT the case.

Contributor
This is an absolute shambles. I have thousands of labels that I cannot use. I am now copying the address (getting rid of all the garbage in it) printing it on plain paper, cutting it out and sellotaping it to an envelope.

It looks pretty rubbish and eBay couldn’t care less unless they get our money.

same here. Now having to cut and sellotape all our labels on all our packages and have thousands of intergrated labels we can no longer use. 

The new invoice/packing slip is dreadful and forced upon sellers. They display the buyers contact number on the address which is a breech of GDPR (data protection), it does not show the postal method which should be used which is a nightmare for the team picking and packing.

As well as this they are not taking telephone calls and when you do get through after been on hold for upwards of 25 minutes they just hang up on you.

Furthermore you cannot find the buyers email anywhere which again is a nightmare when booking in with a courier for the buyer to receive delivery  notifications.

For goodness sake eBay please go back to the old invoice which we use in a document enclosed wallet as the address.

 

Further to my previous comment it is a total waste of paper having to print a picking list to find out the method of postage!

There is so much on the invoice that should not be there! What is the gobblegook ebay **bleep** within the address. If I were a buyer and my contact number was displayed I would be less than happy and unfortunately many eBay customers will not understand that it is not the sellers fault but eBay!!

Also for International orders it shows a range of VAT i.e. Ireland 23%, USA 1.5% is this what eBay charge the buyer using their IOSS number? how do we stand with HMRC when VAT is shown but not charged by us!.

Shambolic!

Does anyone keep getting messages from eBay with regards to some emails cannot be sent?

What is this all about as we do not send emails. You get an ebay email address which you cannot link to anything to be able to check out what you have done wrong. So frustrating! **bleep**

Hi Steven,

We wanted to let you know that some of the emails you sent to your buyers this week couldn’t be sent because they violated our member-to-member contact policy. We know how important it is to communicate with your buyers, so we wanted to remind you that your eBay emails should only be about your eBay transactions and can’t be used for promotions outside of our marketplace.

 

Here’s what you should do

 

Specialist

Try a new thread, it's nowt to do with the invoice and nobody's reading this thread anyway.

Contributor

We are all wasting our time with this. Nobody at eBay is looking at the thread or cares as they have moved on with what they consider a better alternative.  I for one don't think it is for me anyway.  
I spent ages talking with support about this.  There is no point talking with the call centres as they don't have the knowledge.  I spoke to a specialist in Ireland who was very helpful, understood the issue with my labels that are now useless, but thought nothing would be done about  it. They reinstated it last time this happened (which he knew about) but wasn't optimistic of it happening again. 
I am now copying addresses from my orders, modifying them to take all the rubbish out, printing them onto plain paper, and then cutting them out and sellotaping them to envelopes.  It looks a complete mess but that's how it is now.  It looks very unprofessional. 

Anonymous

Is anybody else having issues with?:

 

1.  Invoices numbers not advancing automatically.

 

2. Having made selections for what appears on the invoice/packing slip, the next invoice reverts to the origianal deafault settings.

Contributor

so this has been reintroduced without taking account of the millions of sellers that have integrated label paper and a system that works for them. i'm all for improvements, but why have the customised margins been removed? i now have to cut my printer paper down to try and align the label.

 

the new format makes it less obvious for me to what options buyers have selected (i use multiple option listings).  cant even show the number of pages printed, which helps me ensure all orders i am working with have been printed. the printing "upgrades" are a complete faff and nonsense!!!

 

i use a mac, which is not the most user friendly system when it comes to printing. i rely on the customise options to get the buyers address in the right place, but yet again this has gone! ebay you really need to sort this out!

Conversationalist

I spent ages trying to work out how change the format of ebays new format packaging slip and address label so they fit on my labels and to work within years of fine tuning my current workflow. 

Then the obvious hit me, to save on the additional time and increased expense in paper, printing, cellotape and my time. 

 

Stop including a packing slip all together. 

Observer

how can i send sales when it takes 4 times as long now i have to down load pdfs and mow need to handwrite addresses

 

 

HELP

Contributor

Oh not again eBay please go back to the old invoice which we used

I have thousands of labels that I cannot use now

Just take the buyes email off which would have been fine

You should rethink leaving someones phone number on the address

Why change what most business users are happy with and have spent money integrating the info we get onto our own paperwork

Contributor
Unfortunately eBay don’t care about their customers which is one of the
reasons I have started moving my customers to my own website.
Engager

To be fair, eBay have listened to some extent and have made some changes. For example we now see the INVOICE/PACKING SLIP at the top so we can produce proper VAT invoices for buyers when required and use 'invoice for your own records' for business records.

 

It's still not perfect, but we've found that we're now able to print the new packing slip on our existing A4 integrated label paper, which is this type...

Capture.JPG

To do this, first customise the invoice/packing slip by removing the 'post from' address and shop URL. Click print, then click 'more settings' in the print dialogue box, then change 'scale' to customised 103%. This unfortunately still leaves the buyers tel no. and email on the label, but a quick snip across the label before peeling it off takes care of that without too much hassle.

Conversationalist

@iceblue_uk 

 

Thank you for your work arround. 

But in all seriosness Ebay should be making the process easier not more complicated. Even your work arround is not a quick aproach when your dealing with 10+ orders. 

My gripe is more with the removal of branding, in a nudge to get sellers to open a shop with ebay. Ebay provides an envioment for private and business sellers, in the same way a shopping center does for it businesses. Can you imagine if a shopping center told all the shops to replace their names with the name of the shopping center. Oh and while your at it do the same to all you letter heads and shopping bags too.  It's a crazy notion and a greedy one at that. 

I have talked to a couple of people, and while I have not done this. Some are like the post above moving their regular customers to their websites and also approaching companies directly for stock and admin consumables. I cans ee ebay losing a lot of trade for what they are doing. 

"Never bite the hand that feeds you"

Engager

?... it should be a quick process regardless of the number of orders, just print them all in one go and you only have to set up the custom settings once per day (unfortunately it seems ebay have still not fixed the problem of the custom settings not staying where you set them!). 

Contributor
I have a shop on eBay which I pay for monthly but eBay are not making it
easy for us as well as individual sellers.
Contributor

It's rubbish the GSP shipping information is not shown only the country its going to !

Engager

Yes we also noticed that this morning, it has been reported to the GSP team and hopefully should be fixed shortly.

Contributor

You did not mention that the new invoices do not include the post to GSP Centre information or unique buyer tracking number ? The post to address is shown as the buyers own postal and country's address!!!

Why don't ebay test these new brain waves they have ?

Specialist

It's an invoice, so it's invoicing the end customer, not the GSP centre.  As an invoice it's correct.

 

But it can't be used as an address label.

Contributor

Then why is the price not stated per item.

As an invoice it should have per item price if a buyer hs bought more than one of the same?

And as for the stupid address that is the first time I have encountered that format

Oh wait Ebay wants to hide the buyers Email lol

Contributor
I have been selling on ebay for over 20 years so I know how it works it worked the correct way until ebay started messing!
--
Sent from myMail for Android
Specialist

Hey I'm not ebay, and I don't think everything's perfect!

 

But the GSP centre is not the customer.  If the buyer's details are on the invoice then that's correct.

 

How it always worked in the past is not how it works now.

Conversationalist

@iceblue_uk 

 

I stand corrected. I didn't realise, I have a toggle switch on my printer setting to keep custom settings. It now remains at 103% as you sugested. 

Thank you again for this. 🙂

Engager

Unfortunately it's not correct as it shows postage and import charges, neither of which has been paid to the seller. Only the 'invoice for your own records' is correct as that doesn't show the buyers address; if it did, that would indicate that the seller has exported the goods, however for tax purposes GSP sales should be recorded as UK sales since the buyer pays GSP directly i.e. the buyer is the exporter. GSP then provides the buyer with an invoice, sellers aren't supposed to send any paperwork directly to the buyer.

Contributor
I don't agree the old way work fine for us for twenty years now its changed its not correct !
Contributor
we are going to stop selling through GSP don't have time to try and get tracking numbers.

If its not broke why try to mend it !
Contributor

totally messed up my system so the reams of paper i still have with peel off address box now include random wording /phone numbers and member info and or part of our address 

no means to customize layout , why o why cant you leave things as the where 

Contributor

EBAY WONT LISTEN !!!! THEY WILL JUST TAKE THERE CUT AND RUN MAKING IT HARDER AND HARDER TO SELL . CONSIDERING MOVING ON AFTER 20 PLUS YEARS OF SELLING 

Conversationalist

@xrv-jon 

I agree with you but check out @iceblue_uk post above. He has a work arround that works, you can still use the same labels.  You can also put your logo back in by pre-printing your logo on the slips first or after removing the address label. Just run it back through the printer using photoshop or other image editor to put it back in.  Just be sure to create some space by removing senders postal address in the ebay settings. Though I just printed straight over ebays logo. 

That said I've now opted to produce my own packing slips. This will future proof me with any other stupid moves ebay makes. 

I just need to find a coder on Fiver to create a script for me to use that strips out the ebay code from addresses and I'm set again.

Success with your business and packaging slips. 

Engager

Here's yet another issue with this new format... quite randomly it seems, some of the invoice/packing slips that we printed today no longer show the sequential 6 digit sales record number, in that space it simply repeats the random 12 digit order number. If this is not an error and continues with no sales record number on the packing slips, it will become very difficult to find multiple orders from the same buyer which show up in the order report when you alpha-sort it. If the sequential invoice number were in the report then that could be used instead to quickly find such orders, but of course it is not included in the report and the order numbers are not sequential. So, if you have say 300 orders printed and see that from the sorted order report that one buyer has placed say 3 orders, you have to go through all 300 to find them by name. Great!

Engager

I use integrated labels and I have found a way to continue using them.   I have personalised the packing slip by removing the sellers address and adding the QR code, this puts the buyers address in the correct place.  Next, I 'Preview' the invoices, which downloads a file to my PC, which I then open.   To remove the buyers phone number, email address and anything else you don't want just click on 'Draw', select the colour White and a wide brush and just paint over the bits you don't want.   Print the invoices directly from this file.   I'm only a small seller so editing a few invoices only takes a minute, this might not be suitable for everyone.  I hope this helps someone, I'm so happy all my labels won't go to waste.  I wish Ebay would just leave things alone. 

The packing slip/invoice has my old address on it and I can't find anywhere to change it. I've tried the change account address tab and that works fine, but whatever I put in there doesn't appear on the packing slip or invoice. Any advice greatly appreciated.

Engager

For anyone still struggling with the integrated label issue... (maybe you're still having to zoom in the print or manually cut the email and tel number plus part of the post-from or buyer reg address from the label, or using some other workaround)... there is now an A4 integrated label paper solution available that fits the ebay invoice/packing slip almost perfectly.

 

The format is called D10 and, as far as I am aware, it is only available from one source.... 

https://www.cheap-integratedlabels.co.uk/product/double-integrated-label-d10/

 

The price is low and the paper is of very good quality. It is a double label format and the layout is actually designed to fit the ebay 'Address Label' page, however to make it work on the 'Invoice/Packing Slip' page simply remove the seller URL and QR code customisation options.

 

The post-to address then prints squarely in the small label without showing the buyer's contact info, plus you can leave the buyer's registered address on the page as well so that you don't get hassled for VAT invoices.

 

I say it is almost perfect because, and this happens only very occasionally, sometimes a line of the post address may contain a few too many characters to fit on the label, but this really is quite rare and easily spotted/fixed when it happens.