Faulty eBay tracking system

[classical-lps]

This was not a big issue until recently, but now started to be for some reason. Occasionally eBay's tracking update system misses some shipments, for one reason or another and we get defect recorded. By default this is "Tracking uploaded on time but no carrier scan". Until recently this happened once in 2 months and we simply ignored it, knowing it's a "false positive" and changes nothing with our seller level. But last month 3 out of 33 to USA (unrelated in any way) got us defect recorded and this will impact our level now. I tried with support, sadly receiving almost the same copy/paste answer on 5 of my messages, saying I need to contact my service provider (our national post) because there is no carrier scan. This is of course not true, here is one of those 3 as an example, official tracking by sending service:

posiljka.posta.hr/en/tracking/trackingdata?barcode=LA006258583HR

And also by receiving service (USPS)

tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction?qtc_tLabels1=LA006258583HR

Also every other public tracking services shows the same, like 17track.net, parcelsapp.com etc

I don't want to speculate on the IT process involved in this and why it happens but it started to be a problem for us, we are even getting messages from buyers on "when will we actually ship the items and not only insert the reserved tracking number". So we need to forward them to some public traffic service(s) where they can see we actually did ship it. We never update tracking information here on eBay before item is actually shipped and before the carrier scan is done and visible.

As you can see with above tracking item is already delivered to a buyer and eBay tracking system shows only "Tracking provided", see picture below. Plus we have defect for this. So please can somebody from eBay look into this? @ elisabeth@ebay ? Anyone from tech department?

[classical-lps]

This was also what I got from support in early stage, saying I should talk to my post. First of all how can I speak to my national post here? Saying what?

But seems like an excuse only, to dust us off. Or sheer ignorance. Because tracking (yes, eBay tracking) works for every other destination except for US. How is this possible? So the very same system/data exchange functions without problems when I ship to China, Australia or Germany, but not when I ship to USA?

And receiving post (USPS) reflects all the tracking data simultaneously/instantaneously. Same like every other public tracking service out there. But no, the fault is not with eBay but with others?

It's now over a month since I started talking to support about this issue, posting here etc... still nothing, my defects are piling up, warnings about my seller level coming in...

[jetta20162_7]

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/shipping-items/setting-shipping-options?id=4089#section1

It looks like we are out of luck if our carrier is not inside this list. But it is still very frustrating. As you said, any 3rd party tracking service works, just ebay can't show it.

[classical-lps]

My post was never on this list, yet until May (so for many years!) eBay did correctly pickup tracking info and display it on the order page. At the same time it also continues to correctly read tracking info for all other destinations but for US. This is crazy.

I don't know what to do, except maybe try to insert USPS as a carrier instead of my post when buyer is in the US. As mentioned earlier, USPS displays the tracking information simultaneously with my post, the moment it's entered in the system/posted.

I know this is wrong in a way, just a workaround, but I'm desperate because in over a month this has not been fixed and our defects keep pilling up

[pjcdn2005]

I have no idea what that list is referring to but it has never correlated with the actual services that eBay shows updated tracking for.  For example, it has never shown Canada Post but ebay does show tracking for Canada Post tracking numbers.  

When you add a tracking number next to your item and and the name of the carrier comes up when you add the first part of the name, that has typically meant that the updated tracking will be shown on eBay.  I’ve seen a few recent posts suggesting that it is not working as it used to.  Perhaps it happened when they were setting up the new eBay international shipping?

elizabeth@ebay   Any idea why some internationals carriers that used to show updated tracking on eBay no longer works?

[jetta20162_7]

I was referred to this list by some ebay rep on twitter, he told me anything what is not in this list is not supported by ebay. For me tracking doesn't work not  only in US, but also in every other country. In UK, even royal mail does not work. It shows my item on royal mail website, ebay shows nothing

[jetta20162_7]

for my latest order, ebay didn't even detect the tracking number i uploaded and i got a defect for late shipping / late upload. I uploaded it on time but ebay does not recognize the tracking number itself. 

When i go to order details and click the "Add Tracking" Button, then there is already tracking numbers inside, but they can't be shown in the order details.

[classical-lps]

OK, this isn't moving anywhere as it seems, so I decided to try what I mentioned before, which is entering USPS for a carrier for one of the orders to USA (which is even not very wrong, USPS is receiving/delivering carrier) and to my surprise it was A) accepted  and B) processed correctly with tracking details showing. Since I developed my own app for handling eBay sales it's very easy for me to modify the code and do the same for every shipment to USA in the future, but come on folks, just can't believe I'll have to do it this way!?

elizabeth@ebay order mentioned is 12-10257-81957

[classical-lps]

Since above solution solves my problem, let me share my findings along the way, it was a lot of lost time and in the end it could help somebody to find what the problem is (eBay tech staff) or sellers struggling with this

For some reason tracking system here on eBay interprets differently the very same carrier name entered with tracking data. For every destination in the world but USA it will correctly associate "Croatian Post" with valid carrier and even translate it to real local name "Hrvatska Posta" and tracking will work as it should, see here:

However, when the addressee is in the USA, this very same name would not be recognized (obviously) and  translate to "An Post", whatever this means, anonymous post maybe? and tracking would not work and we would receive defect, see here:

So, same carrier was entered (my app does this automatically) and one will be correctly interpreted with tracking working, while each and every one to USA would translate to "An Post" and tracking will not work.

I then went to pull complete list of carriers through my app and GeteBayDetails API call (with ShippingCarrierDetails param) and got long list of carriers in the system (cca 100) but my postal service is not on the list, not under any name, if anybody needs this list let me know, it's in XML, so quite easy to ready

However, when I edit or enter tracking manually, helper drop-down shows my post correctly (when I start typing the name), see here:

So where does the eBay tracking system gets carrier names for this drop-down helper? Can this list be posted somewhere? Why is this list of services not available through API for us developers (or not complete one)? 

To sum it up, I guess when tracking doesn't work here the reason is most likely that eBay system didn't recognize the carrier, for one reason or another. Try playing with this helper like on picture above and see if you can source correct name of your service which eBay system will then recognize.

My case (my postal service) being recognized or not depending on the mail destination is really awkward and hilarious, such things can drive you crazy, but in the end I'm set, not because it was fixed by eBay or instructed by eBay, sadly by own digging for way over a month now.

[shipscript]

@classical-lps 

You are a courageous soul for tracking this down for so long.

"...GeteBayDetails API call (with ShippingCarrierDetails param) and got long list of carriers...but my postal service is not on the list, not under any name..."

You may want to post your observation (and solution) about the missing carrier list on the developer forum.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Developer-Forums/ct-p/developergroup

[classical-lps]

Well, what else could I do, it was out of necessity and not because I had nothing else to do. It's not the first time in 23 years here on eBay. We lost the top rated seller level in the States because of this fault and it translates in fewer sales for sure, seller level must be one of the criteria defining position in the search results. I guess not the crucial one, but still.

And I received no help whatsoever. From the very beginning I provided enough details for somebody from the tech department to discover what went wrong, back in May/early June, nada... (my app updates the tracking data programmatically for many years without any issues and only somewhere in May this year eBay started recording us defects. And only for the sales to USA).

It appears this issue with recording us a defects is now partly solved. Partly because tracking shows the very same status as before (nothing except "seller provided tracking number"), so somebody tackled the consequence, not the cause. It doesn't mater any more, as explained, I'm all set and with no intention to further waste my time on the issue and do somebody else's job.

My last post above was only to help other sellers with this issue and how they can maybe fix it/investigate it.