Ebay Standard Envelope

[mercertl]

I thought this service was suppose to help sellers who sell trading cards.  Due to this service I just got my first negative feedback because the buyer claimed that I didn't ship the item and I didn't provide a valid shipping number.  Label was printed from my house, the package was processed through my USPS distribution center in North Charleston and that is where the tracking stopped and was never updated again.  I have not had a negative feedback in years and now all of a sudden BAM.   This shipping service does not help if the buyers are confused by it and don't understand how the tracking works.  So much for helping sellers out!

[kosmosattik]

I've thought of trying this new shipping service for lower priced cards but I have reservations.

I don't know what the label looks like using this new method, but it strikes me it may be saying, "Look at me.  I'm a trading card."   That creates the potential for the item to end up in somebody's pocket somewhere in the delivery chain.  As your example shows, non-delivery, no matter who's at fault, lands back in your lap one way or another, a time suck if nothing else. 

Also, at this price, an actual PWE is probably going through a sorting machine.  One wonders if you put one or more stiff or semi-stiff top loaders in an actual PWE whether there's potential for it getting chewed up or spit out, with tracking ending before delivery.   PO instructions for ordinary PWE with a 55 cent stamp require it be no more than 1/4" thick and must be flexible.

I would guess the POs delivery success on ordinary PWEs, like paying a bill, is around 99.9%.   Maybe you were a victim of that 1 in a 1,000.  Maybe the recent disarray in the Postal Service was the cause.  Sending a couple hundred sorting machines to dumpsters in advance of mail in voting sure wouldn't be helping matters.   

I don't know what kind of mailer you used, but if I ever get around to trying this I would use a paperboard or cardboard mailer, bypass the PWE sorters, and pass along the cost.  In 100 lot bulk  they can be had for around 30- 50 cents apiece, much less by the case.  To buy one or two at a brick and mortar store as an experiment they're probably around a buck apiece ...you know where. 

[mercertl]

I have shipped out hundreds of cards since this new service started. I have been using the 6x8 paperboard mailers on all of them.  The problem with this service is some track and some don't and like you said at the end of the day it falls into our lap.  The only saving grace is that at the end of the 30 days if you have to refund because it doesn't show delivered then you can file to get the price of the card covered so that at this time is the only saving grace that I see.

[motorcity68]

I too have been hit with the double whammy.  Double because you get a defect from eBay (item not scanned - which is running at about 10%),  and the buyers (not all) see this as an opportunity to say the item was never delivered.   I too have not had an issue up until this month with INR's.  Basically a perfect storm of a new product (which on the face of it is good) by eBay and a USPS in turmoil due to weather and COVID.  I hope eBay at least will allow for these defects to be removed and that USPS is able to scan correctly.   I also never thought of the issue presented by kosmosattik and implications.  Maybe eBay should remove the term "eBay standard envelope" from the automated generation on the ESI file that goes to your printer.

[mercertl]

In the last two days I have gotten the negative feedback and I have had to issue 4 refunds to buyers.  In 30 days I can file a claim to get my money back but that should never be the case.  Ebay really didn't think this through at all!