wooden_flower Volunteer Community Mentor.
Regards,
Did you know your losses are covered? And that there is a site to check the tracking? Read here under tracking and protection -
https://www.ebay.com/sellercenter/shipping/choosing-a-carrier-and-service/ebay-standard-envelope
Hi @kxc41414
Not sure if you recall the old term "Metered mail" or not? That is the "tracking" that USPS & eBay have for the Standard Envelope feature. If you look on one of your credit card bills or other monthly bills the "code" is typically below the address you send the bill to and it is scanned by USPS sorting machines to speed delivery and minimize handling.
The first scan is NOT at the local Post Office ... it happens on the first sorting machine in the USPS bulk mailing system and at a bulk center. The last scan it gets is on a sorting machine at the bulk facility one stop upstream from the local Post Office ... then the tracking history stops.
As @wooden_flower mentions, you have some protection (for now) on using the Standard Envelope feature with eBay.
Several companies received info from scanning that happens during regular mail processing. While usps only scans usps tracking info through their package processing, the letter info is sent to sites like the one that provides the eBay tracking for the standard envelope. It is less than perfect, for sure, but it does give buyers some sense of tracking.
It is important to file claims for your losses - it helps eBay measure the effectiveness of the program.
@kxc41414 wrote:Thank you for the link! I have ~15 cases to submit for protection where I provided a refund to the buyer after a claim was submitted for not receiving the item. It's disappointing that I've contacted ebay customer service each time this has happened and they told me that standard envelopes were not protected and that I was out the money.
On the tracking - ebay is incorrect. USPS confirmed that their process is to only scan USPS tracking items. I would estimate less than 20% of standard envelopes are marked as delivered. The other 80% it shows that it made it to the sorting facility and then there are no updates from there.
@kxc41414 That is correct, the last scan only happens on a sorting machine with a scanning system that uploads the information to the USPS site and then that info is shared with eBay via the API software.
As others have stated, USPS clerks can not scan eBay's proprietary tracking number, so there is no acceptance scan and no delivery scan. The scanning only occurs within USPS high speed sorting centers, and there could be one, none, or many, sorting hubs between the seller and the destination.
If the envelope never makes it to a major sorting hub, or is "non-machinable", there will be no scan. Some toploaders do not bend and would be ejected by the machines. An envelope should be able to curve around a coffee can (see all those white blurs speeding along the belts and around corners in the above image).
Delivery is estimated by the last sorting hub, and that estimate may be off by hours or days. After leaving that last major hub and entering the normal mailstream, there is no more tracking, even though that traveled path might take a few days.
When a buyer complains that the envelope did not arrive on time, I recommend that they wait 3 more days for it to show. Then, if the delivery is a week late, open a claim for seller reimbursement. As mentioned by others, after settling your buyer's claim, turn around and open your own claim with eBay.
I like tracking envelopes at this site because the tracking is quite detailed:
https://parcelsapp.com/en/carriers/easyship
This is how I prepare eBay envelopes to ensure they are machinable.
