EARTH TO EBAY?! Tracking broken ON EBAY SITE and INCORRECT INR outcomes / refunds
Summary: loothive expresses frustration over eBay's handling of Item Not Received (INR) cases, alleging that issues with eBay's tracking system have resulted in unfair refunds being issued against sellers. loothive claims that despite providing proof of delivery on the USPS website, eBay's system fails to sync this information, closing cases in buyers' favor erroneously. Attempts to appeal and contact eBay support have not resolved the issue, as customer service reiterates that decisions are accurate based on the system's flawed tracking. loothive seeks input from eBay moderators to understand any missteps on their part.
I planned to get on the phone today with eBay but I really don't have 30+ mins to wait on hold..
The tracking of packages on their site HAS NOT WORKED right for some time now. But now they are closing INRs in buyer's favor and charging us for refunds stating that we didn't provide proof of delivery SIMPLY BECAUSE their site is not syncing with USPS that shows SUCCESSFUL DELIVERY CONFIRMATION and everything was done on-time.
In this example, the INR was closed with a refund against us, we appealed, they denied appeal. I emailed merchant support, who repeated that the "original decision was accurate" and "the tracking did not show as shipped with the carrier." If they would have tracked it on USPS.com, they would see they are blatantly in the wrong. So I replied asking how on earth they could double-down on this and there has been no reply.
Seriously, what the heck? We have some other open INRs that I expect this will happen on this week and I just can't wrap my head around the way they're handling this.
@elizabeth@ebay Are there any mods who can tell me if I'm missing something? 🙈
bubnugget
·4 months agoI have the same issue with many of my tracking #'s with USPS not syncing. On the USPS website, the tracking will already show delivered but on ebay's site, the tracking won't even show as picked up yet.
loothive
OP4 months agoI'm glad you found this post then. I knew we couldn't possibly be the only ones.
quadcitypickers
·4 months agoI would also block the buyers that opened the INR. Sounds like they got their item, but are cheating the system to get it for free.
loothive
OP4 months agoYeah I won't hesitate to block.. And I was about to block the one who left positive feedback, which was clearly not automated, but they are no longer a registered user lol.
ccomic
·4 months agoIts crazy how they don't "believe" the tracking number in this case, but do believe it when there is actual fraud. I guess they get all their info "pushed" to them from the carrier as any kind of tracking request would show it as delivered. Pushing this info through the 3rd party might be broken. Why would they push shipment info to eBay when eBay didn't initiate the label?
quadcitypickers
·4 months agoAre you using eBay to print your labels, or a third party like stamps.com?
loothive
OP4 months agoThird party. ShipStation / Stamps.com
quadcitypickers
·4 months agoAs buggy as the shipping label page has been the last week, I would not be surprised if third party integration is also broken.
Moving forward, you might need to use the actual eBay label page for the time being.
For the past INR's, I would get on the phone and get an agent to review that these tracking numbers did indeed reflect as delivered, and push to have the appeals reopened.
stainlessenginecovers
·4 months agoThat's why.
It's NOT an 'ebay' thing.
It's a Shipstation/Stamps.com thing.
By the way, anyone you call will NOT be able to help.
quadcitypickers
·4 months agoActually, it is an eBay thing.
Stamps.com's API only pushes the tracking number to eBay. eBay then polls the tracking UPDATES from USPS into it's own feed. It would not be polling data from stamps.com who polls data from USPS, that would make no sense.
Anytime you see data on tracking on eBay, it's data polled through an API from the carrier system. This is why when I purchase something, despite showing delivered on the USPS website, eBay does not yet show it delivered, sometimes for an hour or so.
When that tracking number is being sent over, something on their (eBay's) end is not causing the API to start polling for updates. The fact that the tracking number from stamps.com is already being uploaded shows the stamps.com push is occurring, but something is NOT occurring on eBay's end. eBay has what they need (the tracking number), but something has stopped working causing it to poll for updates.
Since USPS confirms delivery, it is eBay's liability. Stamps does not give the updates to eBay. USPS has the data, but eBay is not getting it. The mere existence of a USPS tracking number should be triggering it to pull updates.
Even if I paid at the USPS counter and uploaded tracking to eBay and eBay closed an INR due to no updates despite proof from the USPS website as successful delivery, this falls squarely on their shoulders.
stainlessenginecovers
·4 months ago@quadcitypickers Actually it's NOT an eBay thing.
It is MORE than obvious that Stamps.com has FAILED 'pushing info to ebay' after the initial purchase of label.
I haven't had that issue as I ONLY use ebay labels.
ANYONE out there reading this had the same issue (Scans not showing) (and the el cheapo envelope for $20 and under cards etc. does NOT count) and when purchasing labels through ebay the past 3 weeks??
quadcitypickers
·4 months ago*sigh*
Again, the only info stamps.com pushes is the tracking number.
From stamps.com
Once shipped, Stamps.com will upload the required tracking numbers to eBay.
If you look at the original message posted, the tracking number is there, but the tracking data is not.
Also, eBay's own policy states:
By using one of the shipping carriers integrated with eBay and uploading tracking within your handling time, you're also protecting yourself in case your buyer doesn't receive the item and opens an eBay Money Back Guarantee request.
Which USPS is obviously an integrated carrier.
Which is ever the more reason to have these fixed.
stainlessenginecovers
·4 months ago*double sigh&
Again, it is MORE THAN OBVIOUS that STAMPS.COM is NOT 'pushing' anything.
(Hey look, I can make red/big/bold too!!)
But, I know you are only anti-ebay so type away......
loothive
OP4 months agoLol I would not say it's obvious, let alone MORE than obvious. I reached an eBay agent the other day and explained. She was surprised once she looked into the example I posted. After a couple of holds she said their IT dept was opening a bug ticket.
Somewhere, obviously, there is a disruption between eBay and USPS. If everything appears to be working as expected on USPS.com, and NOT on eBay, I think it's pretty logical to lean toward it being on eBay's side. Not to mention it's eBay who in recent weeks has/had been experiencing various ongoing technical issues but anyway 😑
Congratulations. (We do not and will not, because we have a negotiated service agreement with USPS that provides us considerably better rates than buying them via eBay.) Whether or not anyone is experiencing this who buys their labels via eBay would be nice to know but really doesn't matter to me. For us, that would only be a work-around anyway. We just want this fixed.
gurlcat
·4 months ago@loothive When you received notice of this^ INR, how did you respond to it? Please be very specific.
EDIT: Your screenshots (THANK YOU for providing them; that's a thousand times more helpful to understand your situation than words) -they do appear to show a serious problem and if you have other INRs with the same issue, this is clearly an emergency situation. Just so you know, I'm not having anything similar and I don't think it's a widespread problem or else we'd be seeing a ton of threads about it. But when I ask how you responded, just know I'm not assuming this is your fault, just trying to establish if you at least did that step correctly.
loothive
OP4 months ago@gurlcat Yes it's a serious problem. I'll have to get in eBay phone queue today.
Looks like it began right about on May 1st. We have tons of orders not being traceable via eBay since then and increasing INRs being opened for stuff that's either actively in transit or already been delivered.
To answer your question about the INR in my post, we just replied referencing the delivery confirmation details in the USPS tracking and letting them know we rely on that information, suggested checking nearby/around home/neighbors/etc and contacting their local post office for more detailed info since we unfortunately can only see what is shown in the tracking.
gurlcat
·4 months ago@loothive Okay, it sounds like you're talking about replying via email to the buyers. But I was asking about responding to the CASES. It is critical that you do that a very specific way, or you lose every time. The correct procedure is to select "Update tracking" and paste the tracking number into the space provided. It doesn't matter if the transaction already has the tracking number; you have to do this to affirm it, because (in rare cases) sellers have ended up using a different label than the one they initially bought. I suspect that is so rare that it's frustrating they made the procedure ilke this, because I am sure it throws off a lot more sellers who didn't change labels, sellers like you. Like why would you think you need to "update" info that eBay already has, and which hasn't changed?? But that's the way it is.
Now, in your situation I'm not even certain that responding correctly to the cases would be guaranteed to work, because eBay isn't displaying tracking updates on their own display. All I know for certain is that not responding to the case at all will guarantee a loss, and not just a monetary loss but a heavy defect of "Case closed without seller resolution."
loothive
OP4 months agoUgh @gurl-gurl no, I was not referring to member-to-member emails. I was referring to our INR case replies. I have been doing this for 13 or so years. Extremely familiar with every aspect of the process. We always (RE)upload tracking # in the case, and also submit reply with the delivery details or otherwise latest transit scan (again, within the case).
Anyway, I will update tomorrow. eBay support opened a bug ticket with their IT dept, so we'll see if they can identify any factor(s) on their side!
gurlcat
·4 months ago@loothive I'm very glad to hear that, but why the "Ugh"? -I specifically asked you to be "very specific" on how you respond to INR's, and your answer left out the most important procedure.
loothive
OP4 months agoTotally understand you are trying to help and want the full details; thank you! I'm just not here for help with the handling of the INR(s). I am certain that any change to our replies would not have changed the outcome.
I want to keep the topic of focus on the eBay tracking function not reflecting the updates shown on USPS site.
And I want this post active here in case a mod can chime in and for anyone else who might be checking the community who's in the same boat as us!
gurlcat
·4 months ago@loothive I did understand that it was too late to change your response to the example you provided in your OP, but you also said "We have some other open INRs that I expect this will happen on this week" and I couldn't tell from that wording whether you had responded to them yet or not. Also, knowing if you had responded to the example one correctly could enable us to eliminate that factor as the culprit of the final outcome. As I said, if you had not responded to the case by "updating" the tracking number, that would have been the explanation for why you lost that case, because the automation would have made that decision purely on that failure.
Now, not to put too fine a point on this, but in these forums "mods" means the non-eBay (Khoros) employees who just police the forum rules. What you seek is forum-facing eBay employees (most people call them the 'Blues') and yes Elizabeth is one of them, but from what I've seen she hasn't been very active here the past couple years. Kyle and Devon are more active, but even they have been more scarce in the past few months, and I have no idea why. You can try tagging them too if you want, but I wouldn't hold my breath about either replying.
Without re-reading all the replies in this thread (I never reply without having read all replies at least once), I don't know if anyone has already suggested this, but your best bet is to use the private message contact on eBay's Instagram account. IDK if you have any familiarity with their social media CS, but if not and it sounds silly to you, ask me why it's not.
authentic*vintage
·4 months agoI can verify this is a thing - I noticed this recently when I made a purchase from another seller with a large platform like yours - the tracking finally did show up at some point because I can see it now - but I made it a point to leave feedback and check that the item arrived on time because I could see that the seller would be dinged for this without proper tracking syncing over to ebay - the tracking number was there and I could see activity offsite but not in ebay - kind of scared me, as a seller, to see this happening.
I hope they straighten this out for you!
darn_yankee
·4 months agoDisregard. Sorry.