What's up with all the sellers claiming "shipped" but tracking says "awaiting item"?

[t-man-x]

This is one of the things that royally irritates me about eBay. Sellers are printing up a label and sending emails out claiming items are shipped but the tracking clearly shows that's as far as they went: they printed a label. 

I've had sellers tell me something was shipped and send a tracking number and it never arrived. It wasn't shipped, period. It would've been scanned as accepted if it was. I've emailed sellers before after checking back daily for 5 days and noticing they never actually shipped the item, they reply back that it was shipped on such and such, and the tracking magically updates to "accepted at post office" 3 hours after I send the email. 

I'm at the point I'm getting burned on this with at least one item I buy per week. I'm usually ordering stuff that is labeled "Fast and Free Shipping!" and the sellers don't even bother sending the item to the post office until the next week. 

[t-man-x]

I call **bleep** It's impossible that you've "ordered over 10k items" and nobody has printed a label and told you something has shipped without actually taking it to the post office for several days.  Happens to me all the time and I don't know a single other person in the real world who hasn't experienced this frequently to the point that it's possibly their major fear with eBay. That is to say that a seller will just ship an item whenever they feel like it and it might be something that's a real but not life and death emergency like a laptop charger, replacement phone battery, or a purchase for a holiday or birthday. 

Possibly the biggest flaw in the entire eBay system is that sellers get away with printing a label and claiming they shipped an item but don't bother to actually take it to the post office for about a week while blaming it on the Postal Service. A seller that advertises same day or next day shipping yet continually fails to get items accepted at the post office within 4 business days should be booted. Enough of all the, "I heard from my cousin's friend's sister's husband's lawyer's daughter's boyfriend that sometimes the Post Office doesn't scan items for 3 weeks". 

[t-man-x]

The USPS completely failing to scan an item almost never happens. It would require not only human error at several points but would require their automation to fail at multiple locations. 

[t-man-x]

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@oaklandmaryland wrote:
Ebay erroneously blames sellers for all shipping problems even not their fault so they can weed out sellers or begin to charge them higher fees.

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I don't think that's the problem at all. I think in fact they're failing horribly to crack down on sellers who continually print labels and claim items are shipped days before they're taken to the post office. 

It's no secret how they should've been handling this the past decade because Amazon was responsive to these issues and as a result has obliterated eBay. Over the same period their stock increased 50x the rate eBay's did and their revenue increased by 26x the rate eBay's did. And if you ask anybody on the street why they'd choose Amazon over eBay this is one of the things that ALWAYS comes up.  

I mean I've always loved eBay but anymore unless there's a price savings of say over 10% or if it's an item they don't sell on Amazon I'll just get it elsewhere anymore. Tired of the 'print a label and sit on the package for a week' cr*p from sellers promising 24 hour shipping. 

[berserkerplanet]

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

[bdavis_colorado]

To be to the point, you can no longer trust any shipping service in the US.  I ordered tax software and it took 2 weeks instead of 3 days to be delivered as it was sitting in Denver for over 8 days.  Over Christmas I ordered muliple items shipped via UPS, FedEx, and they were all delivered via USPS.  Ya, FYI, that is the major reason for huge USPS shipping costs increase in January imho.  I shipped a packaged directly to USPS but the time stamp was 10:50pm the day AFTER it was shipped.  I no longer trust shipping as proved by experience or Ebay proved by experience as there is zero contact info for Ebay, if you know a phone number please post it.

Thanks!

[ledz58]

Exactly I agree with you in the second paragraph, its the reality of a lot of sellers printing a label and don't bother to take it to the PO for about a week and blaming it on the postal service. All you see is waiting on package from the tracking info, which is the truth.

[nkpina2014]

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@t-man-x wrote:

I'm at the point I'm getting burned on this with at least one item I buy per week. I'm usually ordering stuff that is labeled "Fast and Free Shipping!" and the sellers don't even bother sending the item to the post office until the next week. 

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This is where you need to heavily ding bad sellers. That's all it is; a bad seller.

If they have a handling time of 1 day, and the tracking isn't updated until DAYS later, something is off.

Sure, sometimes the PO doesn't scan an item at the original location, but you can easily tell when this happens. If it ships out of Texas and get scanned in New York first 2 days later, the seller shipped on time. If it ships out of Texas and gets scanned in Texas 3 days later, something is fishy with the seller. 

As a buyer, you've essentially "paid" for fast and free shipping. It's built into the price of your item. Sellers that take the time to go to the Post Office 5 days a week get rewarded with the "Fast and Free" tag. You should voice your concern via feedback and low star ratings for shipping. This removes the ability of the seller to continue with the "Fast and Free" program. 

[btbully]

Longtime ebay buyer and seller. I have seen this now as a trend . Sellers are creating a tracking number before actually shipping to buy them time on getting the actual product ( selling items they don't have yet or find out it's on backorder after they sell it.) .  Big ploy by China sellers that try to act like they are shipping from the USA, but they are actually shipping from China.  I am learning now to really look at the feedback before I order.  

[kh-vince]

Hello Everyone,

Due to the age of the thread, it has been closed to further replies.  Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thanks for understanding!