Many eBay and PayPal users in US territories such and Puerto Rico, Guam and the US Virgin Islands are suffering from what I call the “Printing/Mailing Delay Syndrome.” EBayers in US territories could experience delays in the mailing of their items because a mistake they made when filling up the user profile and personal information when first registering on eBay and/or PayPal.   The issue is that many people are selecting the name of the territory such as “Puerto Rico” or “Guam” or the “US Virgin Islands” as the mail to “Country.” This causes that the eBay/PayPal check out and label printing service automatically goes to the “International Mode” when in fact the items should be mailed through the US Domestic Postal Service.  This situation could cause a delay of up to 7 days because sellers would need to go directly to the Post Office and manually mail the items. In times when the US Postal Service would even come to your house to pick up items sold on eBay, many sellers limit their visits to the Post Office to only when extremely necessary.

How to solve this issue?  I would recommend that all eBayers living in the US territories should verify that the country where they are registered is in fact the “United States.” Any US Territory could be selected as a “State.”

To verify just follow these very simple steps:

1. Login to “My eBay”

2. Once you are in “My eBay” look for “My Account” and click on “Addresses”

3. Once the “Addresses” screen is open you will see your “Registration Address” your “Payment Address” and your “Primary Shipping Address” If any of these do not have “United States” at the end of the address you will need to correct it!

4. To correct any of the addresses click “Change” on the right-hand side of it. (for security reasons you may need to re-enter your login information and password.)

5. Check under “Country” and click “Change your Country”

6. From the pull-down menu select “United States” and click “Submit”

7. If you are satisfied with the changes then scroll down and click on the “Change Registration Information” to submit your changes.

8. Repeat these steps as necessary to correct other addresses.

I hope that these clues will help many of you living in the US territories. Hopefully this will enhance your eBay shopping experience!