Just wondering if other Ebay sellers are having an issue with USPS shipping times? I've been a seller for many years and I've never seen it this bad. The last few times I've shipped first class mail-the tracking shows the post office has it and scanned it, but then its like a dead trail and it doesn't show up on time. I ship my packages within 24 hours to keep my good rating, but am concerned with this pattern I see.
Just wondering if Ebay has any solutions to this problem as far as protecting sellers. Shipping on time does affect our seller ratings, but if we have no control over it, what's one to do?
We aren't having any trouble (knock on wood)......as long as the PO shows acceptance on the tracking info within your handling time, you should be all right as far as your metrics go. If you are having trouble with them doing the initial scan, I would be sure to get a receipt at the PO/talk to your carrier/or talk to your local postmaster (not the clerk at the counter)......
I ship mainly Media Mail the PO usually quickly delivers. But there are times the PO will just do the acceptance scan and no other scans until delivery. My buyers don’t seem to be bothered by this. Another thing I’ve noticed is the difference between what the USPS website shows for tracking and what eBay shows. USPS is more accurate and up to date. eBays sort of lags.
I ship my packages within 24 hours to keep my good rating, but am concerned with this pattern I see.
Just wondering if Ebay has any solutions to this problem as far as protecting sellers. Shipping on time does affect our seller ratings, but if we have no control over it, what's one to do?
Your last sentence above got me a little lost - not sure what you were asking there - but Ebay does not penalize you for a late delivery as long as you shipped within your Handling time. The Acceptance scan is what proves that. You say that your PO is scanning the outbound package as they should so as long as that scan occurs within your Handling time then you are all set.
Over in my selling account I routinely ship First class packages all over the country and have not seen any unusual delays recently. Knock on wood!
I have had that problem with Media Mail, & Parcel select only, But I am stopping to use those two services, The other issue has been severe weather around the country & ebay supposedly has are backs because of that!
Thanks everyone for your input, I appreciate it. It's good to know as long as the scan occurs, I'll be within Ebay's guidelines of shipping on time. Also, ebooksdiva, thanks for the heads up on the tracking info--I think that may be what has happened a few times. One time, tracking showed it wasn't received on Ebay, but the buyer let me know he had received it so maybe those delays in uploading info to tracking is what I'm seeing happen.
One time, tracking showed it wasn't received on Ebay, but the buyer let me know he had received it so maybe those delays in uploading info to tracking is what I'm seeing happen.
Ebay and USPS have a kind of shaky connection when it comes to showing tracking updates reported by USPS. I have seen over time that USPS will make changes to the format of their tracking data that catches Ebay by surprise. This was especially true when USPS changed the verbiage of their various Delivered notifications and not all of them were correctly understood by Ebay as a Delivered notice.
You would think that USPS could have one clear status indicator meaning 'DELIVERED' and then maybe some text for additional description as needed (such as Delivered in Mailbox or on Porch or Handed to Recipient or ect.) but instead it seems like Ebay tries to read their scan log text and interpret it. They do not always get it right.
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