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eBay Standard Envelope Tracking Issues February 2022

For those who don't want to go through my whole rant and semi-stream of consciousness rambling, I'm basically posting here today wondering if any other sellers are currently having issues with eBay Standard Envelope? I have been using it since like May/June of last year, and outside of some hiccups here and there, no real issues until the past few weeks. If you have time to waste, feel free to listen to me go on and on and on, but really hoping to hear back from others in the community and see if this is a big issue going on atm, or if its just a fluke for the time being. 

 

Thanks in advance,

Drew

 

Has been quite some time since I've posted on here, apparently last time was May of last year when I had a buyer do the old switch-er-oo and send me back a binder full of jank. The two times I've come to these forums before, I needed insight into how to deal with problematic buyers, but today a new issue has arisen that has never been as problematic as it has all of a sudden this week: unreliable tracking.

 

For anyone who has been selling on here in the collectable sphere since the beginning of last year and before, you are probably all too aware of eBay's introduction of the standard envelope tracking service. When it was first introduced, I was hesitant like many, and actually went into first as a buyer to see what the experience was like from that end. Surprising no one for this new service (think was this time last year it was first introduced?) there were issues a plenty. The card I ordered took about a month to finally reach me. Because of that experience, I waited some time before I decided using it for my own sales. But for anyone who deals with trading cards and wants to have a tracking service embedded with their sales, you'll know the price advantage of the envelope shipping vs. USPS First Class is astounding. There are always the dissenters outside of collectables who will say "well, just use First Class, don't be cheap," but when you have stacks of cards that their listed price doesn't even cover First Class, you certainly know envelope shipping is the only option for these kinds of orders.

 

Instead of continuing to ramble on and on with the back story, I want to address the issue at hand and see if there are any other sellers experiencing the tracking issues I am right now, because I tried searching and wasn't able to find much in recent months. Anyway, I've done probably 500+ orders using this tracking service and never had any real issues. There were buyers who would contact me with concerns, because for those unfamiliar with the service, the package can be listed delivered well before it actually is since the tracking is done through eBay and not USPS (but I won't diverge into the whole process here and get to the **bleep** point already lol).

 

A couple weeks ago, had a buyer contact me they didn't receive their card. I explained kindly as I had a dozen times before that's just what happens with this cheaper service, and to wait 24-48 hours, and that they should expect their order by then. They contacted me several days later and expressed it still hadn't arrived, and I apologized and explained how this hadn't happened before, and how I'd love to help, but that as a seller this issue was out of my control since the tracking available to us showed the package had been delivered, and that the only course the buyer could take was contact their local post office. Then I got another message from a buyer a day later, whose package was listed as delivered a week before, and had been sent out around the same time (think January 22nd, give or take). I explained the same thing to them, that they seemed earnest and I was sorry, but that the situation was totally out of my control as a seller. 

 

Then a few days later, I received that buyer's envelope marked "return to sender." Of course not being a shady piece of **bleep**, I refunded the buyer and explained that I received their package back so they were entitled to a refund even though tracking said delivered. It was odd to have these back to back experiences, but I do believe I had a return to sender envelope in this fashion before, but didn't think much of it then, just this time with having those two experiences from envelopes sent out on the same date.

 

So bringing this back around, this week, which started January 30th, I've sent out a few dozen envelopes using this tracking service, and almost all of them have been stuck on "Tracking Number Provided" since Monday and its now Friday evening. Typically it wouldn't fuss me too much, since I don't keep up with tracking unless notified by a buyer because of the volume of my sales, but recently got my first bit of neutral feedback for "slow shipping" (took me 2 business days to ship something, though to be fair in some regards, it had been sent on Monday, when order the previous Thurs, and zero update on tracking until that Wed even though it was a First Class) so I've been wanting to ensure my shipments have been smooth this week, and of course that is the way things go.

 

I will post this question at the top as well for those who don't want to venture through my lengthy narrative, but basically I'm wondering if any other sellers who frequently use this tracking method have experienced issues as of late. I'm sure things will work out fine enough in the end, but with that recent feedback and the fact I've had a good chunk of my sales relying on this shipping method, it has produced some anxiety if there are some kind of internal issues with it and I will have to change my business practices and only list items that are of a value consistent with the ever-increasing costs of First Class and above.

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Re: eBay Standard Envelope Tracking Issues February 2022

Hi.

 I too have been using the service for the past 6 months or so with not many hiccups. 

 

 However in the past few weeks too many buyers have claimed they did not receive the item, or received it weeks after they should have. In addition I received a defect for late shipping on one item which I appealed to no avail! It was a great idea! But the follow through is lacking. The tracking is inaccurate, delayed and often incorrect. Even though there is a way to get refunded, the damage with the customer and my store reputation is not worth it.

 

 Based upon the responses I have read in discussion threads and business considerations I have decided to use eBay standard shipping only on items under $9.  This limits my risk and gives the savings opportunity to those buyers who don't want to spend a lot.

 

 If eBay figures out a way to correct the issues I'll  reconsider.

 

Hope this was of help!

 

Baseballchip

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Re: eBay Standard Envelope Tracking Issues February 2022

Hi.

 I too have been using the service for the past 6 months or so with not many hiccups. 

 

 However in the past few weeks too many buyers have claimed they did not receive the item, or received it weeks after they should have. In addition I received a defect for late shipping on one item which I appealed to no avail! It was a great idea! But the follow through is lacking. The tracking is inaccurate, delayed and often incorrect. Even though there is a way to get refunded, the damage with the customer and my store reputation is not worth it.

 

 Based upon the responses I have read in discussion threads and business considerations I have decided to use eBay standard shipping only on items under $9.  This limits my risk and gives the savings opportunity to those buyers who don't want to spend a lot.

 

 If eBay figures out a way to correct the issues I'll  reconsider.

 

Hope this was of help!

 

Baseballchip

Message 2 of 11
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Re: eBay Standard Envelope Tracking Issues February 2022

You can probably get your answers on the Shipping forum, or perhaps the Selling forum, where I see there are many, many questions and answers about the Standard Envelope:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?advanced=false&allow_punctuation=false&q...

and

https://community.ebay.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?advanced=false&allow_punctuation=false&q...

 

=

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Re: eBay Standard Envelope Tracking Issues February 2022

Yea I typically would upgrade to First Class once an order got to $10+ but not always because that extra savings on shipping and the "insurance" seemed great if I could make it work, but as you said about reputation, it matters quite a bit and I think a rule of thumb like that is good. Under $9 on free shipping don't think anyone should expect shipping to be half the price of a listing (though there will always be characters lol).

 

Not glad to hear this is a recurring problem for others, but at least its reassuring this just randomly started happening to me out of nowhere. As you were saying, I had very few issues with this shipping option for well over half a year now without the occasional hiccup, but just got another refund request today of an order that was "out for delivery" on January 26th, and most of those orders I sent out on January 31 that I had issues with when I first posted this have still not rlly updated (though I made sure to send coupons to buyers this affected since there's nothing else I can do to change the matter at hand).

 

Thanks for taking the time to respond; that was a helpful response and hope it helps other buyers who come across this post.

~Drew/Peeplescollectables 

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Re: eBay Standard Envelope Tracking Issues February 2022

Thanks a lot for the links; I rarely use this forum and when I first searched for this question I wasn't able to find anything recent, but it seems using the search engine just with standard envelope and sorting by date is a great way to get recent updates. I'll try to do my part and comment on a post that needs it lol.

 

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Re: eBay Standard Envelope Tracking Issues February 2022

 

 


@peeplescollectables wrote:

Thanks a lot for the links; I rarely use this forum and when I first searched for this question I wasn't able to find anything recent, but it seems using the search engine just with standard envelope and sorting by date is a great way to get recent updates. I'll try to do my part and comment on a post that needs it lol.

 



No problem.  We all know that eBay's search engines are fairly poor, and that's true on the forums, as well. 

 

=

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Re: eBay Standard Envelope Tracking Issues February 2022

I guess it finally had to happen to me too.  I use the ebay standard envelope for postcards sales over $10 and I just got a message from ebay that a customer did not get his cards.  I have never had a problem before now. Tracking shows "out for delivery" since February 7.   There is a hold on my payouts for the amount until the issue is resolved.  I guess that is ebay's polite way of extorting me to refund the buyer for an issue they obviously have with their standard envelope.  I will do it, but I will think twice about using this service in the future.

jak

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Re: eBay Standard Envelope Tracking Issues February 2022

I can confirm tracking issues shipping out of Metro Atlanta.  USPS has not been updating tracking on 90+% of my packages until they hit the destination state.  That is not a single scan until it gets where it is going.  I have hundreds of examples since Dec 2021, but since 1st of year it is almost 100% no tracking. If there is any tracking, it is when it leaves Atlanta Area, no tracking at any point in between.  This is causing an innordinate amount of time answering questions like "when are you actually going to ship my package?" 

 

eBay seems aware of the issues as it seems they have adjusted how they calculate ontime shipping...

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Re: eBay Standard Envelope Tracking Issues February 2022

Ebay Standard Envelope shipping for sellers totally sucks and totally rocks for the scammers who have figured it out if they buy something and it doesnt track as do 45% of my sales, then they are able to get a refund by saying they didnt get item. It is happening to me more and more as buyers are starting to realize the problem with this ship service.

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Re: eBay Standard Envelope Tracking Issues February 2022

I am in the same boat right now. Just this past month, I have had 5 separate customers say that they did not receive. What makes it worse is it keeps happening on cards that at the threshold...so I'm starting to get really frustrated. I have been using eBay's shipping service on cards since the beginning, had 2 years without a lost package and this year alone I am over 10 and we aren't even half way through the year.

 

I don't want to think that my customers are all scammers purchasing cards specifically to get refunded, but the last 3 Wander Franco cards I sold had this happen which is a strange coincidence....eBay needs to figure this mess out quickly. 

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Re: eBay Standard Envelope Tracking Issues February 2022

I never used it until my last batch of cards because people complaining about shipping cost on single cards. But literally all 3 of the items i shipped with standaed envelope didnt get delivered. One disappeared 1 town before the destination and the other made it but never got too the buyers house. The Ebay Shipping # isnt trackable so, unless USPS agreee to give ebay REAL tracking numbers, its too sketchy and useless. People steal and scam, its the way of the world. Not worth it

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