I am looking for guidance from experienced sellers, moderators, or anyone familiar with APO military mail and Seller Performance metrics. I have been selling on eBay for more than 20 years and have roughly 5,000 completed sales. My current seller metrics are strong overall: 1 defect, 0 unresolved cases, and a late shipment rate under 1%. The issue involves eBay Standard Envelope shipments mailed from an APO AE military address in Germany. Recently, my Valid Tracking Rate dropped from 100% to 91.28% because 13 transactions were marked "Uploaded on time but no carrier scan." I also received a late shipment defect on a Standard Envelope order because the first USPS scan occurred after my handling time. My concern is not the scan date itself. My concern is that APO military mail and eBay Standard Envelope do not operate like a normal domestic USPS package. With Ground Advantage or Priority Mail, I can obtain an acceptance scan and receipt. With eBay Standard Envelope, there is no traditional USPS acceptance scan available to me. The envelope is processed through sorting equipment and tracking events can be delayed or missed entirely. When APO military mail is involved, the first USPS scan may not occur until after military postal processing. In my late shipment appeal, eBay acknowledged that the first USPS scan was June 16 and used that date as the shipping date. However, the item was delivered only a few days later in Indiana. My position is that the first USPS scan does not necessarily represent the actual mailing date for APO military mail. My larger concern is this: How is an APO military seller expected to comply with seller performance standards that depend on scan events occurring after the shipment has left the seller's possession? What action can an APO seller using eBay Standard Envelope take to guarantee compliance when there is no acceptance scan available and USPS scan timing is outside the seller's control? Has anyone else experienced this issue, particularly military sellers using APO addresses? Has anyone successfully escalated this type of concern to Seller Performance or received clarification from eBay regarding how APO Standard Envelope shipments are evaluated? Thank you for any insight.
keepsakepostcards
fourthquartervault
