Earlier this month, we reported on a glitch in the eBay mobile app that displays free shipping on items that don’t actually include that on their listings. Understandably, this has led to a bunch of frustrated buyers who are presented with unexpected shipping costs and frustrated sellers who have to deal with said buyers and who are worried about how it makes them look as sellers.
It’s a lose-lose for everybody involved, and some buyers are just going ahead and paying the shipping costs to keep customers happy. No seller wants to piss off buyers as things can quickly spiral out of control from there.
The issue has apparently been going on for quite some time without eBay’s acknowledgment. According to Consumerist, its’ been happening for at least a year to some degree.
The publication points to an announcement where eBay finally addresses the issue and says it’s working on a fix. It was brought up at the end of a broader post in the “Weekly Chat with eBay Staff” section of eBay’s forums. There, an eBay employee says:
The Incorrectly Showing Free Shipping In Accepted Offers in Mobile issue has been reported. The mobile team is testing the fix today. If all goes well, the fix should be released within the week.
Better late than never.