eBay Shipping Label Hiccup Hints At Changes Coming Soon As USPS Cracks Down On Counterfeit Postage
eBay sellers experienced problems with USPS shipping labels yesterday in package scanning hiccup that may foreshadow changes coming next month as the postal service looks to crack down on counterfeit and unpaid postage.
Across the eBay community forum and social media, hundreds of sellers reported that some of their packages were not being accepted by USPS because labels purchased and printed from the platform were coming up as "not paid" when being scanned for acceptance.
One post in the eBay subreddit with 270 responses detailed the problem, saying their postal worker said it may have been the result of an update planned for March being rolled out too early.
Watch out for USPS not accepting prepaid eBay labels as of today
There was apparently an update to the USPS system today that is causing friction with eBay prepaid labels. Went to drop off some eBay orders at the post office just now and when scanned at the counter (I always do this to get a receipt), they got an error saying that the postage had not been paid for yet.
The USPS clerk told me these changes to their system aren't supposed to go into effect until March, but obviously we encountered it today. She said they received training this morning that they are not supposed to accept these packages.
We tried scanning them on the self-serve kiosk as well and still got the same error. The only way they were able to accept my packages was by scanning them in with their handheld scanner, but they're unable to provide a receipt with this method...
...Edit: Per some info gleaned from the comments, it sounds like this is only affecting recently created labels. The updates to USPS's system are rejecting these labels until it can validate them, which may take up to an hour after the label is created.
That matches with information that shipping label provider Shippo provided to their customers earlier this year advising that USPS was going to begin auditing packages more strictly to confirm postage payment has been fully processed before accepting them.
And a post in the r/USPS subreddit yesterday also seems to confirm the eBay label issue was due to this coming change.
" Unpaid postage at time of scan"
Anyone anyone else dealing with this ridiculous shit on RSS? Wasn't this supposed to start in March?
...RSS incorrectly assessing that there is no postage on something when there definitely is (confirmed on PTR) is a customer service nightmare.
One response said that some post offices may have had the change rollout sooner and that March was just the timeframe when it is supposed to be implemented across all locations that use Retail Systems Software (RSS) and handheld Mobile Delivery Devices (MDD).
They did say that some offices would be implementing the new rollout ahead of the March schedule. In March is when it implements for every RSS office and on MDD scanners.
As USPS continues to face massive quarterly losses, cracking down on counterfeit and unpaid postage and making sure that labels printed through third parties are actually paid for would seem to be a prudent revenue protection measure - but USPS will need to carefully balance implementation of the new system to avoid disruption and inconvenience for shippers.
Liz Morton
The issue seemed to have been resolved later in the day yesterday and sellers reported that packages which had scanned as "not paid" earlier in the day were able to be accepted a few hours later or when dropped off at a different post office.
But questions remain about what the change could mean for sellers next month and if eBay will make updates to the label purchase process or communicate more directly with sellers about the issue before USPS rolls out these updates more widely.
Notably, eBay announced today that sellers in Germany will soon no longer be able to use PayPal to pay for Deutsche Post and DHL labels purchased through the platform (translation by Google).
From March 16, 2026, PayPal will no longer be available as a payment method for Deutsche Post and DHL shipping labels on eBay.
We recommend switching your payment method for purchasing shipping labels to eBay credit. This will allow you to continue buying labels smoothly on the platform.
Why paying with eBay credit is a good choice
- With your eBay balance, you can easily pay for shipping labels directly from your sales proceeds – no detours.
- You retain full control over your income and expenses.
- If your balance is ever insufficient, the remainder will be automatically covered by your saved payment method.
- The balance can also be used for other eBay fees or purchases, or flexibly transferred to your bank account.
Currently, sellers in several markets can still use PayPal as their preferred payment method when shipping through through country's postal service (like Royal Mail in the UK and USPS in the US) rather than having the charge default to their funds on balance or backup payment method.
For example, on the US site when purchase a UPS label, the only option is to Pay With Your Funds, with a note that if the balance is not sufficient, the rest will be charge to your default payment method on file.
But for USPS purchases, the seller can choose to pay with PayPal instead, with a note they will be redirected to PayPal to authorize the payment if it is the first time, but then subsequent payments would be completed without having to log in.
eBay has not indicated that the PayPal option will be going away for other markets besides Germany at this time, but it's possible that this policy could extend to the UK and/or US in the future as well.
While not directly related to the apparent upcoming USPS scanning changes, eBay could use those changes as a reason to "streamline" label purchasing options under the guise of ensuring payment for labels is successfully processed and collected at the time of printing to avoid problems when being scanned at the post office.
How would it impact your eBay business if you no longer had the option to pay for USPS labels with PayPal? Let us know in the comments below!
