Recent Decline in eBay Standard Envelope "Tracking"

[kds99]

Something clearly happened on the 23rd of February resulting in total lack of "tracking" on most of my ESE mailings. Whereas before this, only a small percentage of items received no "tracking" at all, now most are lacking any posting, even an initial "scan". Now only two mailings since the 23rd are normal. Such a marked change would seem to imply a change in either eBay or USPS operations. How can it be that an item once missing the initial "scan" would not eventually received another scan later?

[shipscript]

@kds99 

Only the major USPS sorting centers are capable of capturing eBay's ESUS custom scan code for Standard Envelope. That means if the item never passes through a major sorting hub (or if the letter is kicked out of the machinery for being too bulky or stiff), there will be no custom scan . If you are near a sorting hub, you should always have an initial scan; if not, the initial scan may occur elsewhere in the country. And if the buyer is near a hub, there might be a destination scan.  When looking at which items receive scans and which don't, you might be able to tell if your local center is letting you down. If so ask your local post office which sorting center your mail is sent through and ask whether it has equipment to read custom ESUS tracking numbers. It is entirely possible that severe weather has meant the mail is getting sorted elsewhere.

The next possible scenario is that eBay is not retrieving the scans (as if the software has changed) but that would not account for the occasional scan getting through. You can track your letters on EasyShip to see if USPS is scanning them:

https://www.trackmyshipment.co/

[jrods-affordables]

I’ve had the same thing happen to about 40 cards since then as well, only info I get is tracking number created which is going to cause a lot of questions from buyers even though their item shipped.

[kds99]

Thanks, shipscript, this helps me think through the process a little better. As luck would have it, before I could use the tracking link you shared, I could see that several of the items now have tracking, two of which magically showed up at Washington state today, without ANY prior scan. I guess that's better than nothing. Several others have a destination scan now, so are alive and well, with prior tracking present now which was not visible in eBay earlier today. If correct, that would seem to imply that some reporting was delayed for some days and was only today made visible to me. Two others have no scans yet.

It's very rare for me to ship something that does not go through several plants between Iowa and either coast, so a typical item gets several scans.

We even have three sorting centers that are alternatively used for our mail - Milan IL, Cedar Rapids IA and Des Moines IA just to make things interesting!